Baby

The remains of a female child were found by some boys playing out on Grove Hill in Caversham.

One of the boys said that he had seen a bag protruding from a hole high up in a bank whilst playing on Grove Hill and that when he and another lad removed it and partially opened it they saw what they thought were the remains of a dead dog.

When a policeman, after being told by his nephew that something had been found in a bag, went along, he took a look and said that he ascertained that the remains were human and took them to the police station.

He said that the spot where the child was found was about 100 yards from a footpath that led from Grove Hill to Surley Row and that it was about 7ft up the bank in an old rabbit bury overhung by brambles. He said that whoever had placed the body there would have had to have got up the bank.

A doctor that examined the remains said that they appeared to be those of a female child but that it was very decomposed and that he was unable to determine the cause of death. However, he said that the organs that remained were normal and that he thought that the child had been dead for at least a month. He added that the remains were those of a child capable of living and that he imagined that the child had had a separate existence.

The bag that the child was found in was a black American cloth bag and the body of the child inside had been wrapped up in newspaper that was adhering to its body.

An open verdict was returned.