Paris Mayo convicted of murder (TW)

[Whitakers]

NB v distressing content

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/23/teenager-guilty-baby-herefordshire-hide-pregnancy-paris-mayo

The jury was asked to consider an alternative verdict of infanticide but found her guilty of murder. I’m surprised by this- surprised she wasn’t just charged with infanticide in the first place, to be honest. It’s a terrible case.

It's awful. She's hardly a dangerous criminal who needs to be locked up to keep the public safe .

Poor baby and poor Paris, it's an awful story all around. Her poor brother and mum seeing the baby in the bin bags, just every aspect of it. Hope she gets help and support.

She was only 15. She should not go to prison

She’ll get a life sentence, albeit with a short period for parole (the Times is saying 12 years). It’s absolutely shameful.

Such a sad case. Don’t understand why not infanticide. I also can’t help but consider it next to the woman who had an abortion at
32-34 weeks. Both sad cases, both women wanted to kill their foetuses - so if Paris had taken abortion pills 24 hours before labour - she would have been charged with a much lesser offence and got 10 years less?

Poor girl.

Lot of sympathy here for someone who battered and suffocated a newborn baby to death. Yes it is a sad case, I'm not struggling to understand that. But you seem surprised that you'd get such a sentence for this - I'd expect it.

@Obviouspretzel - not surprised by sentence as if she is convicted of murder, starting sentence is 15 years (not sure what it is for a juvenile committing murder). Just thinking about it in context of woman who aborted v late.

The sentence isn’t surprising for a murder conviction- it’s mandatory. For me it’s the decision to prosecute her for murder rather than infanticide. If infanticide isn’t the appropriate offence for a teenager who secretly gives birth in her bedroom, I struggle to see when it would be appropriate.

I think the reason it was murder rather than infanticide was because the jury was satisfied that the act was premeditated.

And from a public protection point of view I would be extremely concerned about a young woman who has the capacity to stamp on a newborn's head. I have enormous sympathy for the terrifying situation this girl found herself in and I'm pleased to see others being so compassionate but I fail to see how the court could have imposed anything other than a significant custodial sentence. I'm as pro choice as they come (early as possible, as late as necessary) but once that infant has taken a breath outside of its mother's body it rightly has the full protection of the law.

I sincerely hope Paris gets intensive therapeutic support in prison and that she has many healthy years ahead of her when she is finally released.

I agree - but infanticide was put to the jury and they dismissed it in 8 hours.

She killed a baby
Yes she wss very young and vulnerable but what about the baby that wss brutally murdered ??
When men are found guilty of killing babies we don't say poor boy.
They are vilified and rightly so.

The thing is the jury know much much more than we will. They see and hear tone, inference, emotion ( or lack of) plus the actual evidence. I suspect if they dismissed infanticide so quickly there will have been a clear cut reason.

She deserves that sentence. At 15 you know not to assault and kill a newborn ffs. Shamima Begum was 15 too and she has to live with the consequences of her actions so why not this lady?

The article is horrendous
She assaulted the baby so violently.
Poor little dote.

She should be locked away forever. 15 or not. You know right from wrong.

You are right @Fooshufflewickjbannanapants - although I have sat through some trials in full and seen all evidence and thought jury has made the wrong decision. However, I guess the jury decided her mind wasn’t disturbed by the birth and therefore couldn’t convict of infanticide.

I suspect its due to the brutality (unusual in cases like this) amongst other things that have been reported. I do hope she recieved the support she so clearly needs, but I do think in this case the sentence is fair.

Although she gave birth in the front room, I completely agree with you OP.
There will be no sort of manslaughter defence like infanticide available to girls or women if this conviction stands. It’s unfair. It’s too harsh a punishment.

This man got 5yrs for violently killing his wife because she said “get over it” when he said he was finding lockdown hard.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/18/anthony-williams-killed-wife-act-of-great-violence-jailed-for-five-years

Yet a CHILD to you for sex gets 12yrs because they found pregnancy and childbirth hard and traumatic?! Something which is well known to psychologists and psychiatrists to be one of the most stressful time of a woman’s life- much less an underage child.

She killed her newborn baby. She stamped on his head and when she realised he was still alive she then stuffed cotton wool down his throat, she meant to kill him.
15 is plenty old enough to understand you just don't do that !!

Not necessarily. For late term abortions there is the charge of child destruction (which the woman you're talking about was originally charged with before it was changed, not sure why). Child destruction can lead to being sentenced to life. This is also what someone would be charged with if they attacked a pregnant woman and it resulted in the baby dying.

Too.harsh a punishment, would toy say TBE same if a msn had brutally murdered a new born I doubt it
Where's the compassion for the baby?

She stamped on a newborn baby's head fracturing the skull, the baby would have been in excruciating pain. She then stuffed cotton wool down his throat to kill him as he was still alive. I'm sorry but do people really think that anyone is not a risk and should not be punished after that? She has been sentenced to 12 years, she will still be young when she comes out.
I would ask how you would feel if the father of the baby had done this?

Where’s your compassion for a 67yr old woman?

I have compassion for both, but you cannot sit here and argue that Mayo’s sentence is comparable to the sentences of even adults who kill. It’s harsher when it should be less harsh because she was a child.

I have sympathy for her feelings frightened and traumatised at giving birth unexpectedly.

However, she caused there baby so much pain and suffering in his short life. When he didn't die from her initial attempt to end his life, she prolonged his suffering by suffocating him and lied about it. It's a very deliberate act, and not a spur of the moment thing.

She is clearly not in her right mind though, and I wonder whether there will be some appeal for loss of mental capacity.

The jury were clearly satisfied that the extensive medical evidence in this case proved Paris was lying about what she did and why she did it as well as evidence that she premeditated what she did. They were shown strong evidence that she did know she was pregnant and deliberately concealed it, that the baby's injuries were absolutely not accidental, and so on. I don't know why she's getting such an outpouring.

Comparing her sentence to that of a man who killed his wife is a false syllogism. As was said on the "drunk in charge of a baby" thread, a baby is totally helpless and dependent on its parents for its very survival. That has to mean hard sentences to stop women just doing this then claiming they were "traumatised" to get out of having a baby, for the sake of the helpless babies.

I'm not saying it was fair that the man who killed his wife got a lesser sentence, but I don't think his sentence is grounds for this woman in this situation getting a lower sentence. What she did was abhorrent and the fact she lied and lied about it after, even in court. The solution is a harder sentence for male domestic abusers not lighter sentences for female baby killers.

Ok, I keep seeing this “stamped on baby’s head” and you know that is an imaginative fabrication? The coroners report says the baby had a skull fracture indicative of head trauma consistent with a car accident. There is no evidence she stamped on the baby’s head. None. We don’t know exactly what she did.

You can’t compare father and mother for a neonaticide because the father can never go through the psychosocial stress of pregnancy and childbirth.