Teenager guilty of murder.

[placemats]

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

Apart from the fact that she was raped, if consent to sex is to be a legal term, I find the prosecutions allegations appalling.

'But the prosecution alleged Mayo must have known she was pregnant but chose to deliberately conceal it because she was always planning to kill the baby.'

Perhaps Mayo didn't get early abortion help she needed. I know of one woman, who had 3 previous children, who didn't realise she was pregnant, thought it was early menopause until 4 weeks before her due date. However to allege she was always planning to kill the baby is a step too far. It intimates that those in authority know this child's mind.

I don’t like hearing babies crying but I hope a jury wouldn’t use that to convict me of a crime.

This girl specifically said that after being arrested for killing a baby and claiming he was stillborn. Of course it will be used as evidence.

If you're not in this situation, you don't have anything to worry about and the police certainly aren't picking on her by thinking it might be relevant to the case in conjunction with other evidence.

We are obviously not going to agree. In the meantime a young woman languishes in prison for years and to what end

Erm. Punishment for a horrid crime perhaps?

Evidence of what? I mean saying you like to hear babies cry is sinister compared saying you don’t like to hear babies cry.

Of course it's evidence, it's a direct quote relating to her views on babies, possibly showing a dislike or intolerance. Whether or not it's strong evidence - no, it's not conclusive. Still evidence.

Depending on the context, possible inappropriate, possibly normal.

It's also pretty relevant for the prosecution given the cotton wool as far as they're concerned, it was used to silence the baby from crying.

Who the fuck kills a baby and actually tries to get away with it anyway

Theres nothing wrong with disliking crying babies though? It usually means you like babies but it’s them crying/being distressed is what you don’t like. I don’t like crying babies…mostly because I want to run over and make sure they’re being treated well.

So I don’t think that statement can be used of evidence of anything because there’s more than one way to mean it.

Per the coroner’s report the cotton wool was used to suffocate the baby. No one in the house heard a baby crying, so it’s unlikely it did cry.

I read she was considering a career as a midwife. Even pleading guilty to infanticide would prevent that I would think so maybe that was her motivation to deny rather than admit infanticide. Otherwise I can't see why a guilty plea to infanticide wouldn't be the best option.

Only 12. I think she should have received longer.

Utterly disgusting what she did. She knew what she was doing. She just wanted to get away with it. Vile individual.

Indeed. I find this sentence for a traumatised 15 year old girl who had just given birth and who was described by the judge as 'young for her age' bizarre when compared to the fairly lenient sentences which have been imposed on many adult killers. I hope it is appealed.

I have had post partum psychosis twice. The first time ds2 was born at 1pm by c section by seven pm I was inconsoleable. I just felt like the most dreadful thing had happened to me, I wasn't terribly focussed on the baby because I couldn't get past how bad I felt myself. I have never felt so distraught since even through close bereavements etc.
With ds3 it was completely different, I was elated, ds3 was the most wonderful amazing being ever to have been born. I had incredible energy, no need to sleep, I felt invincible. This started really soon after he was born. This was possibly worse because I knew I was ill after ds2 but I couldn't see I was ill after ds3 because I felt great and was subsequently sectioned.
I didn't hurt either of my children I feel I must add and recovered fully given time and enough medication to fell a horse.

I absolutely agree with this.

Adult murderers and rapists don't get this long never mind a traumatised young girl who's giving birth alone.

Thanks, that is interesting. With your experience do you think she would have recovered without medical intervention from what would have been a very serious condition to allow her to do what she did. The women I knew had extensive treatment, one was sectioned for several years she was the one who killed someone.

But she wasn't jailed for getting pregnant, was she? Lots of teens face that situation every day. They don't deal with it by committing murder.

See I did recover from the birth of ds2 without medical intervention. It was only whilst discussing with a psychiatrist previous birth experiences that I opened up about what happened after ds2. I did some very risky things,my marriage ended. I didn't bond with ds2 for a long long time.
When ds2 was 8mths I took him to A&E after he had been sick, I had a gut feeling something was wrong with him and he did have intersussception and needed an operation. What I didn't tell the doctors at the time was the reason I thought something was wrong was because I could see insects crawling out of his flesh. The doctor in A&E was very kind to me but I said nothing and I kept everything under wraps whilst spending a few days on the children's ward.
Again I knew I was ill but I didn't feel able to tell anyone how ill I was. I was a single mum at the time (h left when ds2 was four months old) to two under two. I was young, my mother had died when I was a teen my father lived away. I suppose I just got on with it and it burnt itself out.

I'm so sorry, that sounds tough! You mention some of the vulnerabilities previously referenced as increasing the likelihood of psychosis.

She was only 15 and went through really traumatic situations. It would be more surprising if she weren't traumatised.

I remember with DS1 I felt like there was an alien inside me squirming about. During labour I found the way my body got on with it outside my control really freaky.

I can't imagine doing that at 15, no preparation, no support.

I really hope she gets some kind of therapy in prison. She's got a lot to process.

I was about to say the same. No way would we be defending a bloke doing this.

hiredandsqueak I'm sorry, that sounds like such a difficult thing to have gone through. Glad you recovered.

How on earth did her parents not notice she was pregnant?

There was a 15-year old in my sister’s class at school, who was rushed to A&E with suspected appendicitis, only for her and her Mum to discover she was in labour. Genuinely neither of them knew or even suspected she was pregnant.

A nurse I worked with was as slim as a pin, back in the days when we wore belts that emphasised our young and tiny waists. She’d been on thyroid medication for some time and it had stopped her periods… except actually she was pregnant, and didn’t know it until she was 7.5 months! I swear as soon as she found out, all of a sudden her belly expanded, honestly overnight, she’d been wearing her teeny tiny belt the day before and the next day couldn’t even fit into her uniform dress. It was as though her body had suppressed all signs until her brain acknowledged it.

So surprise babies are possible - Take A Break magazine was always full of them, especially the magical “menopause” pregnancies in older women, I knew one of those too.

A newspaper article said the mum moved back in to care for the dying father.

So she may have been living separately.

I can't wrap my head around a 15yr old whose dad died within days, who'd been disowned by her dad already, who gave birth alone and unprepared.

Her isolation just screams at me. No one to care. No one to notice. No one to turn to.

Wow.

I'm not disbelieving it. It's just that almost everybody I've known to be pregnant has been absolutely huge.

It could literally never happen though.
There will never be a post partum teenage boy.