A 19-year-old girl who murdered her newborn son hours after giving birth has been jailed for at least 12 years.
At a trial, Paris Mayo, then 15, suffocated the boy, Stanley, by stuffing cotton wool into his mouth and throat.
Mayo gave birth to him alone at her family’s home in Ross-on-Wye, in March 2019, while her parents were upstairs.
“Killing her baby was a truly terrible thing,” the judge, Justice Garnham, said in handing down the sentence.
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It was heard at trial that she had assaulted Stanley, leaving him with injuries comparable to those seen in a car accident.
Evidence suggested that the fractures to his skull could have been caused by Mayo’s foot.
The newborn was found by its mother the day after its birth, lying in a garbage bag that she had left at the door.
Mayo gave birth alone in the family home on March 23, 2019
Mayo had claimed that she did not know she was pregnant and also told the court about her difficult family life and her father, who had made her feel “useless”.
The court heard that father Patrick Mayo had been upstairs undergoing dialysis treatment with Mayo’s mother at the time of Stanley’s birth.
“A human being is probably never more vulnerable than at birth,” Judge Garnham said during the sentencing.
“You had decided that you could no longer allow him to live.
“You were trying to convince yourself that you weren’t pregnant, you didn’t want to admit the truth.”