Baby

The body of a newly-born child was found in a bonfire at the Cocked Hat Plantation in Temple Bruer.

The remains of the child’s body were charred. Burnt paper wrappings were also found.

Owing to the intense heat the inquest was held in the open air under the shade of an overhanging beech tree on the Roman Ermine Street which was at that time nothing more than an old cart track and which was not far from where the child's remains were found. The coroner held the inquest sat on a seat that he had removed from his car.

The coroner said, 'It might be murder, manslaughter, infanticide, concealment of birth or illegal disposal of a body'.

The remains were discovered by a group of friends from Wellingore that had gone out for a picnic. A woman said that she and her brother along with his brother's wife and two friends had gone to the plantation and found the remains in a bonfire there. She said that they first thought it was a tree trunk but noticed that there were flies around it and so they looked closer and found that it was the body of a child.

A detective sergeant said that the child appeared to be a full-term one but said that it was not possible to determine the child's sex because the lower half of its body was charred. He added that it was definitely a human body.