Woman buries newborn baby alive

A woman has admitted burying her newborn baby alive, Mirror UK reports.

Latvian Elita Amantova, 39, was living rough in a graveyard before she gave birth to the child in 2012, a court heard. The tragic death was discovered after a fox dug up the baby on London’s Tooting Common and dumped body parts in a nearby tractor yard.

At a hearing at the Old Bailey, Amantova admitted infanticide and was sentenced to a hospital order. The court heard she had been diagnosed with a schizophrenia-type mental condition in Latvia in her 30s but it was exacerbated by childbirth.

Outlining the facts of the case, prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC told how the defendant had an “appalling experience” after she came to the UK around 2008. After losing her job, she found herself in the company of organised criminals in Norfolk who set her to work as a prostitute.

In August 2012, she fled to London where she was found sleeping rough in a burial ground off Garratt Lane in Tooting. The court heard that by then she was heavily pregnant, living off berries and bread left out for birds, sleeping on grave stones and wearing a blonde wig.

A member of the public, Verity Verster, became concerned about her condition and alerted authorities, Ms Johnson said. As a result, a police constable tried to persuade her to go into suitable accommodation but she refused help and officers decided there was nothing more they could do.

Ms Johnson went on: “On September 10 2012 a worker found a baby’s leg and foot on the ground at the tractor yard at Doctor Johnson Avenue next to Tooting Common. The leg was infested with maggots. In a search, another limb was found, the thigh and calf had been eaten through exposing bone. Later, a fox expert was called to the yard and discovered a fox entrance. A fox is likely to have found those body parts on Tooting Common and brought the parts into the yard.”

The expert said that foxes were capable of carrying up to around 4kg over two miles, the court heard.

DNA testing identified the mother as Amantova, who had given birth without any assistance.

On September 17 2012, she was found sitting on her haunches outside Sainsbury’s in Garratt Lane watching people coming and going saying it was a “nice day.”

She was arrested but could not be interviewed until the following February because of her serious mental illness.

She told police in a prepared statement that she gave birth to a child in August 2012 and she buried it in a park on the same day.

She said she thought she knew who the father was but had no contact with him and he was unaware of all the events.

The defendant told police she found the birth “too traumatic” to answer questions about it.

She refused to tell police whether the baby was alive or dead before she buried it, but during an interview in April 2013, she admitted to a doctor that the child had in fact been alive and she was charged with murder.

However, at today’s hearing the prosecution accepted her plea of not guilty to murder but guilty to infanticide.

Handing her a hospital order, judge Paul Worsley QC said infanticide was a “rare offence” and while “the court must always mark the serious fact a life has been taken”, a hospital order was appropriate in the circumstances of this case.

The judge said that due to the enduring illness the defendant was suffering, she would probably need lifelong treatment and care.