Baby

The body of a newly-born female child was found dead in a field on 4 September 1984.

The child's body was found wrapped up in plastic bags on waste ground behind Dogberry Close at Willenhall.

It was decomposed and had been mutilated by dogs and foxes.

The police failed to identify the child or trace its mother.

An open verdict was returned at the inquest.

The pathologist said that the child had a plastic bag over its head that was knotted below the ear.

He said:

He said that the child was new-born, and had been wrapped up in a blood-soaked sheet and that it was clear that it had received no medical care at birth.

He said that the child could have been born dead, but that asphyxia:

Which he said would have caused death within a few minutes.

However, he noted that decomposition was so bad that pinpointing the cause of death was impossible.

It was heard that the police thought that the child could have laid undiscovered for weeks.

The body was found by two brothers on the waste ground, and when they realised what it was, one stood guard over it whilst the other went for the police.

The Coroner described the case as:

He said that the shame of the people responsible:

A police detective said that they had made house to house enquiries throughout the Willenhall area and that nurses, midwives and doctors had been questioned, but with no results.

When the Coroner returned an open verdict he said that he believed that it might have been murdered, but that the facts would remain a mystery.