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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: male

Date: 5 Aug 1906

Place: Greengate Brickworks, St Helens

The body of a newly born child was found in a disused claypit behind the Greengate Brickworks in St Helens on Sunday afternoon 5 August 1906.

The child had a brick attached to it.

The body was found by a rag gatherer who had seen the child’s leg projecting from the water. He said that after finding it, he covered it up so that the children would not play with it and went off to report the matter to the police.

A detective said that when he recovered the body from the clay pit he found that it was wrapped up in a linen cloth and some brown paper and that there was a brick fastened to it's back by a tape which went round the child's neck.

He said that the child's body was very much decomposed.

The doctor said that the child was fully developed and that there was no doubt that it had had a separate existence, but that owing to the state of decomposition that it was not possible to say what the cause of death was. He said that he had made a careful examination but had been unable to reveal any signs of death from strangulation or homicidal violence.

The doctor noted that in all probability the child had died from natural causes and had been disposed of in the clay pit to avoid burial expenses. He added that because bodies were found in pits and behind walls, it did not always mean there had been a murder.

An open verdict was returned.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Liverpool Daily Post - Thursday 09 August 1906