Teen mum accused of killing newborn 'kissed baby goodbye and put him in bin bag'
A teenage mother accused of killing her newborn son told police she "kissed him on the forehead" before she "gently placed him" in a bin bag, a court has heard.
Paris Mayo is on trial over the death of little Stanley Mayo, who she is accused of inflicting with complex skull fractures shortly after giving birth at her parents' home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, in March 2019.
Distressing allegations about Stanley's death were given in court on Thursday, including that Mayo - now 19, but aged 15 at the time - stuffed the infant's mouth with cotton wool, pieces of which were found in his throat.
Worcester Crown court previously heard Stanley was alive for little over two hours, despite Mayo telling police he had never shown signs of life.
Mayo is alleged to have concealed both her pregnancy and the fact of her delivery of baby Stanley, which she did alone and unaided in a sitting room, claiming she was unaware she was carrying.
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Paris Mayo (left) arrives at Worcester Crown Court where she is charged with the murder of Stanley Mayo on March 23, 2019 (PA)In what was the first time jurors have heard an account from the defendant, interviews with police at Hereford police station were re-read in court.
When asked by police how two of the cotton wool balls could have got into the baby’s throat, she claimed to be “panicking because he had all this blood coming out of his mouth”, and started “cleaning it up”.
Mayo said: “My whole finger never went into his mouth.
“I could have been a bit rough or something, they could have gone down (his throat) like that.”
Later, asked why she did not ask her mother, who was upstairs asleep, for help, Mayo replied: “I didn’t want her to be ashamed of me.”
Mayo’s responses to officers’ interview questions, given on April 3, 2019, were read by prosecution barrister Chloe Ashley.
She told police how she was likely “in denial” about her pregnancy – having been studying childcare, including the different stages of pregnancy at school at the time.
After suffering painful cramps throughout the preceding 48 hours, it was sometime around 9.30pm, after her parents had gone to bed, that she delivered her son alone, in a downstairs sitting room.
“When I was stood, I got sharp pain, I put my head on my arms and heard something make a noise – you could hear something hit the floor,” she said.
“I looked down and I saw him (baby Stanley) and I just thought ‘oh God’.
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“When I saw the baby, he was on the floor, I saw his umbilical cord was around his throat, he wasn’t crying, making any noise, he wasn’t moving, he wasn’t like a normal baby colour.”
She placed the baby on a rug, and went to the kitchen, fetching water and a towel to clean up, but then saw Stanley “had blood coming out of his mouth and I was like ‘oh no’.”
Mayo said her father had left clean cotton wool balls in the room, as he was treating an ear infection, and said she reached to pick some up to “absorb” the blood in her newborn’s mouth.
“I knew I couldn’t help him, knew he wasn’t going to come alive, so I just wiped all this blood up and left it (the cotton wool) in there (his mouth)… so it would absorb all the blood.”
She added: “I was just that exhausted and tired, that’s when I got back up, went to the kitchen and that’s when I got the bag to put him in.
“Like a black bag. I don’t know why I just wanted it all to be over with.”
Mayo said: “I didn’t pick him up and just chuck him in there, because that’s horrible.
“I opened it up and put it on the floor, so he wouldn’t fall in or hurt himself, I picked him up and I cuddled him goodbye.
“He still wasn’t doing anything.
“I kissed him on his forehead, gently placed him in there, (and) put the placenta in next to him.
“I tied it (the bag). I picked it up from the bottom where he was, walked by the front door and put the bag there.
“I knew my mum was going to see it there, I left it there to find – on purpose.”
Afterwards, she went upstairs to bed and “went straight to sleep”.
Asked if she was responsible for the death of baby Stanley, she replied: “No.”
Jurors heard previously that the next morning, at 8.23am, Mayo allegedly sent a text message to her brother, George, which read: “When you go outside, can you put the black bag in the bin, as it’s just full of sick from last night, pls?”
Mr Mayo previously gave evidence that he picked up what turned out to be a blood-stained black plastic bin liner, finding it “unusually heavy”, watched by Mayo’s unsuspecting mother.
Seeing how heavy it was, it was then his mother was prompted to look inside and – finding the dead youngster – immediately dialled 999.
Mayo, of Ruardean, Gloucestershire, denies wrongdoing and the trial, expected to last six weeks, continues.
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