Life sentence for killer who hid baby in suitcase

Jia Xin Teo claimed she had been hearing voices which told her to kill or harm the baby

A murderer who put her newborn baby in a cereal box, and then hid the box in a suitcase, has been given a life sentence with a minimum prison term of 17 years.

Jia Xin Teo, 22, was last week convicted of murdering her baby at her Coventry student flat on 6 March.

Passing sentence, judge Mrs Justice Tipples said she was sure the student had planned to kill the baby after giving birth in private.

The judge added she "did not accept" Teo's version of events at trial that she had heard voices telling her to kill or harm the baby.

During the trial, the court heard how the student had travelled from Malaysia to study at Coventry University while pregnant in early 2024.

Teo gave birth to her baby at full term at the flat on Raglan Street on 4 March and placed her in a cereal box, then inside a sealable plastic bag and then into the suitcase.

In her sentencing remarks at Warwick Crown Court on Friday, the judge said: "You knew that, by sealing that plastic bag, your baby would certainly die and you thought that, by hiding her body in a cereal packet in your luggage, no one would ever find her body.

"I am sure that your baby was alive for over four hours before you killed her."

Justice Tipples said Teo continuously denied giving birth to a child when receiving medical help, but after an intimate examination, admitted to police she had hidden the body.

"I am sure you decided to give birth all on your own as you were determined that no one should know you were pregnant, and no one should know you had had a baby," she said.

"This was because you had decided that you were going to get rid of your baby as soon as she was born, and then no one would ever know you had had a baby."