Baby

The body of a newly-born child was found in the Burton Canal on Sunday 16 April 1911.

It was found in the water by a chimney sweep who had lived at 9 Little Burton East, about 200 yards down the canal on the Burton side from the Hillfield Lane Bridge near Clay Mills at about 11.50am. He said that his attention had been attracted by an object floating in the water and that when he pulled it out that he was astonished to discover that it was the perfectly nude and somewhat decomposed body of a newly-born female child.

He said that he left the remains on the canal bank and went off for the police who then conveyed the remains to the police mortuary at Horninglow Road in Burton.

The doctor that carried out the post mortem said that it had been a fully developed child but that decomposition had taken place and that he thought that it had been in the water for about a week or twelve days. He added that there were indications that there had been inattention at birth but added that there were no external marks of violence nor any broken bones.

However, he said that evidently full respiration had not taken place but that in his opinion the child had breathed a little and he was unable to state whether or not the child had had a separate existence.

He noted that there was a little fluid in the child's stomach which he said would make one hesitant to say definitely that the child had not had a separate existence.

He added that with attention at birth that the child might have lived.

When he was questioned he said that he saw no signs of strangulation when he examined the larynx and added that the fact that the lungs floated in water showed that there had been a certain amount of respiration.  However, he said that he could not swear positively that the child had lived.

However, another doctor that heard the evidence stated that the fact that the lungs floated in water was more indicative of decomposition.

The jury then returned an open verdict stating that there was not sufficient evidence to show whether the child had had a separate existence.