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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: male

Date: 14 Aug 1933

Place: Burgess Hill

The body of a newly born child was found in a pond off of the yard of the Keymer Brick and Tile Company.

The body was found by a man that had been in the yard showing a little boy how to work a motor boat on the pond after a little girl that they were with drew their attention to a brown paper parcel that was floating on the water on the far side. The man then tied a stone to a piece of string and threw it over the parcel and drew it in. However, when he got it he found that it smelt so badly that he took the children away and came back later with a man and found that it contained the body of a baby.

When a doctor examined the child, he found that it was in an advanced state of decomposition but gained the impression that the child had lived for at least a day or two. He said that he thought that the child had been in the water for about six months, or perhaps less.

A piece of cloth was tied tightly round its neck but owing to the decomposition of the body it was impossible to detect any evidence of injury.

The coroner said that all the evidence indicated that the body was deliberately wrapped up in a brown paper parcel and put in the pond with every intention of concealing it. He said that it had definitely lived for a day or two but that there was no medical evidence to show the cause of death, but that if the jury considered that on the facts the child had lived and that the piece of cloth had been tied tightly round its neck that they would be entitled to conclude that the tying round its neck of the cloth was the cause of death.

The jury returned the verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown and that they were of the opinion that death was due to strangulation.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Mid Sussex Times - Tuesday 15 August 1933, p3