No prison for infanticide

[Snafu03]

you can question the mental state of the girl at the time. but then again you can question the mental state of most murderers. doesnt escape the fact she tried to conceal her crime and get away with it.

this'll no doubt split opinion but do you think the right decision was made for a 12 month supervision order?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...nd-hampshire-11526492

[jake-the-peg]

Difficult to say from just a newspaper report but I'd suggest that it would have to be quite exceptional circumstances.

How can you even comment without seeing the psychiatric report that the judge would have had access to?

For all we know she had other mental issues to start with.

She's not exactly a menace to society and I doubt there a risk of reoffending. Would this act as a deterrant - I'd think such cases are rare so probably not.

What purpose would a jail sentence serve?

[fredpuli47]

That's why we have a crime of infanticide [Infanticide Act 1938] for what would otherwise be murder. The woman has to have the balance of her mind so disturbed by the effects of the birth "or the lactation consequent upon it" that she causes of the death of the child.This girl's case is a classic case of it. Evidently the reports show that, in her case, 12 months supervision was the best course.

[missnemesis]

"The concern is if she were to give birth again, her memories may come back again and there may be need for psychiatric assistance." D'ya think???

Sterilise her before she murders another innocent child.

[ummmm]

She was a 16 year old girl who didn't even know she was pregnant.

[Bbbananas]

Difficult one this - but I have to say I think the decision was ultimately right. She was 16 and terrified, and genuinely unaware.

[123everton]

One of the passengers on the Titanic killed her own child, threw it out of a moving train window.