A teenager who is on trial for suffocating her newborn baby with cotton wool and then putting it in a bin bag was pictured arriving at court this morning.
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.
Jurors were told the baby’s death came to light when Mayo’s mother asked her son what was in the bag, which was described in court as ‘unusually heavy’ and had left ‘streaks’ of blood on the doorstep.
Upon opening the bag 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.
Paris Mayo arrived at Worcester Crown Court this morning where she is on trial accused of killing newborn Stanley Mayo in March 2019
The court heard the then schoolgirl killed the baby by assaulting him and stuffing cotton wool into his airways
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 esophagus.
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.
Worcester Crown Court heard the schoolgirl, then 15, killed the baby by assaulting him and stuffing cotton wool into his airways
Mayo was just 15 when she gave birth to little Stanley in March 2019 in Ross-on-Wye
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’.
Worcester Crown Court heard Mayo thought she was experiencing menstrual pains on the evening the baby was born and had a warm bath
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.
Mr Hankin said yesterday: ‘The prosecution says that the defendant killed the baby to prevent the discovery of her pregnancy and his birth.
‘She didn’t want the baby.
‘Despite having parents and siblings – whom she acknowledges are loving and supportive and to whom she could have turned for help and advice – she murdered him.’
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.
