https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12075767/Mother-screamed-daughters-newborn-bin-murder-trial-hears.html'There's a baby in the bag': Mother screamed when she found her daughter's newborn in the bin after schoolgirl, 15, suffocated child after 'unexpectedly' giving birth at home, murder trial hears
Paris Mayo was 15 when she allegedly suffocated her baby with cotton wool
By Andy Dolan and Matt Powell
Published: 08:48, 12 May 2023 | Updated: 09:54, 12 May 2023
A mother screamed when she found her teenage daughter's newborn baby in a bin bag, a murder trial heard. Paris Mayo was just 15 when she allegedly murdered her newborn baby boy after 'suddenly and unexpectedly' giving birth in her living room while her parents were upstairs. Worcester Crown Court heard the schoolgirl killed the baby by assaulting him and stuffing cotton wool into his airways. The she put his body into a rubbish bag and asked her older brother to dispose of it the next day. But her distraught mother shouted 'there's a baby in the bag' when she looked inside and then called emergency services. Mayo, now aged 19, denies murdering baby Stanley Mayo, who was born full-term or nearly full-term, on the night of March 23, 2019. Prosecutor Jonas Hankin KC said: 'The birth took place in the living room of the family home where Miss Mayo lived with her parents and brother George. She was alone and delivered the baby unaided while her unwell father was upstairs having dialysis being overseen by her mother. Following delivery the defendant assaulted the baby to the upper front left and right side of his head causing a severe brain injury. Approximately two hours later, realising the baby was still alive, she stuffed pieces of cotton wool into his mouth and neck. 'She put the baby's body inside a bin bag and deposited it on the front doorstep before going up to bed.'
Mr Hankin said an autopsy discovered the baby suffocated after one piece of cotton wool blocked his oesophagus. Worcester Crown Court heard Mayo thought she was experiencing menstrual pains on the evening the baby was born and had a warm bath. Her brother George left her glasses of warm milk and water outside the bathroom door before he went out for the night. When he got home Mayo asked him not to enter the living room because she had bled heavily, the jury was told. The next morning the teenager sent her brother a text message asking him to get rid of the bin bag saying it contained her 'sick' from the previous night. But Mayo's mother looked inside and went hysterical screaming to George: 'There's a baby in the bag'.
Mr Hankin said: 'The defendant's mother called emergency services saying her daughter had given birth. She was heard saying, "You could have told me darling. Poor baby. Why didn't you tell me?".'
The jury was given a plan of the family home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, and instructed to write 'birth' in the room where the baby was born. They will also be played the 999 call from Mayo's mother. The court heard Mayo told paramedics she didn't know she was pregnant and the baby had 'fallen out of her'. Mr Hankin said: 'She told a paramedic the baby did not seem right. She was hoping her mum would think the baby was rubbish and throw it out. She said she knew the identity of the baby's father but she didn't have anything to do with him.'
The jury heard Mayo later named the father as Benjy Davies but this turned out to be incorrect. The murder trial heard Mayo had denied being pregnant when her older sister asked her two months earlier. Her brother had no idea his sister was pregnant but had noticed she had become broader and bigger and had started wearing baggy clothes, the jury heard. Mayo, of Ruardean, Gloucestershire, claimed that the baby was not moving or breathing after she gave birth and she used cotton wool to clean up 'stuff' coming out of its mouth. The trial is expected to last six weeks.
