Baby

The body of a newly-born child was found in the River Aire at Thorpe Stapleton.

The child was found by a ploughman and his little boy as they were out for a walk. The little boy had first seen the body and pointed it out to his father saying, 'Look, it's like a doll'. When the ploughman looked closer he said he saw the body of the child floating in an eddy a few feet from the bank.

The body was of a newly-born male child and had two strands of string tied tightly round its head and neck that had completely compressed its nostrils making deep furrows in its neck.

The doctor stated that there was no doubt that death was due to suffocation and that the child had been dead for at least a week when it was found.