A TEENAGE mother has been jailed for a minimum of 12 years for murdering her newborn son when she was 15.
Paris Mayo, now 19, denied murdering the child after giving birth alone at her Ross-on-Wye home four years ago, but was convicted on Friday after a six-week trial at Worcester Crown Court.
This afternoon (Monday, June 26), she was told she will serve a minimum of 12 years for the killing, which the prosecution claimed was caused by a deliberate assault on the boy’s head and suffocating him with cotton wool.
Sentencing the former John Kyrle pupil, who later attended Monmouth Comprehensive before doing a beauty course at Gloucester College, Mr Justice Garnham said the case was “sad and tragic”.
She had struck the boy, posthumously named Stanley, on his head and later wanted to 'finish' killing him by putting cotton wool balls down his throat, he said.
He described the 19-year-old, now of Ruardean, as 'pathetic’, as options like abortion were available to her.
"Killing your baby son was a truly dreadful thing to do," said the judge
"A human being is probably never more vulnerable that at the time of their birth. You had decided you could no longer allow him to live.
"You were trying to convince yourself that you weren't pregnant, you didn't want to acknowledge the truth."
The trial heard that she concealed the pregnancy from her family, and gave birth alone “suddenly and unexpectedly” on the evening of March 23, 2019, in the living room of their Springfield Avenue home, while her sick father, who died 10 days later, was undergoing dialysis upstairs.
Her mother, who the court heard was too upset to attend the sentencing, found the dead baby’s body in a bin bag on the doorstep with her son the following morning.
In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service said after her conviction Stanley's "short life was filled with pain and suffering when he should have been nurtured and loved".
"The prosecution built a case based on medical evidence which proved that Paris Mayo's actions were deliberate, she chose to hide her pregnancy, give birth alone and kill her baby, then hide his body despite accepting that she had a family who would have supported her.
"I would like to thank the jury for their careful consideration of this difficult case."
Senior investigating officer for the case Detective Inspector Julie Taylor, said: “Paris Mayo, who was 15 years old at the time, claimed Stanley was born cold, did not make any noise and hit his head on the floor when he was born.
“She did not alert anyone to the birth of Stanley, or the fact he had died. She claimed she did not know she was pregnant at the time.
“Following a six-week trial at Worcester Crown Court a jury found Mayo was in fact responsible for his death; and attempted to conceal her pregnancy from those who could’ve, and would’ve, supported her.
“The death of a new-born baby is utterly heart-breaking, even more so when the person who is responsible is the baby’s own mother.
“This has been a devastating case for the investigative team to deal with and I would like to thank those involved for their outstanding efforts to ensure justice has been done today.”