Baby

A baby was found dead at a property in Holmrook Road, Preston and the child's mother was tried for its infanticide but acquitted.

It was heard that there was no evidence other than her own confession that the child had been born alive. It was heard that she had delivered the baby herself and had had no medical advice during her pregnancy.

It was claimed that she had suffocated the child whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed.

However, she was convicted of endeavouring to conceal its birth and was bound over on the condition that she returned to Scotland with her mother who had said that she was will to take her back.

The mother had been living in rooms with her husband in Holmrook Road, Preston at the time but at the time of the birth she had been alone and had afterwards burnt the body of the child on the fire and then put the remains in the dustbin.

The mother was later arrested in January 1957 at whilst time she had been sleeping out in a Preston park with her husband.

The court heard that her marriage was an unhappy one and that her husband had been an epileptic and had been out of work.

At the trial the mother's probation officer said that the mother was one of a family of fourteen and that she want to go home to think over the circumstances of her marriage.

When the judge commented he said that although he mother had done a very wicked thing that he felt that she had had a rather wretched life and had not had much of a chance since she left home.