Dead baby's injuries comparable to those seen in car crash, court told

Paris Mayo told police her baby fell on to a tiled floor when she gave birth

A baby's head injuries were comparable to those seen in a car crash, the trial of a teenager accused of killing her son has heard.

Stanley Mayo's injuries could not have been caused by accident, Worcester Crown Court was told.

His body was found in a bin bag which Paris Mayo, then aged 15, had put outside her house in Ross-on-Wye after giving birth to him in March 2019.

Miss Mayo, now 19 and from Ruardean, Gloucestershire, denies murder,

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She had told police her baby fell on to a tiled floor when she gave birth at her family home.

The prosecution said medical evidence showed that was not an adequate explanation and that such injuries were normally found after major trauma, such as a car crash.

Worcester Crown Court heard Paris Mayo asked her mother, "what a half-Chinese, half-English baby would look like", a few weeks before her baby was born

Specialist doctors, described as experts in babies and children, all believe her son was alive for at least one to two hours after his birth, the jury was told.

Prosecuting barrister, Jonas Hankin KC, told the court the baby had air in his stomach and bowel.

That happens when babies cry and the prosecution said that was proof that he was alive for some time after he was born.

He was found to have multiple skull fractures and soft tissue swelling around them, which showed that he was alive when he received them.

The court heard Ms Mayo delivered her baby, weighing 7lb 12oz (3.56kg), alone, unaided, at her parents' Herefordshire home.

The prosecution alleged she then attacked him, fracturing the upper left and upper right sides of the skull and causing a severe brain injury.

About two hours later, "realising the baby was still alive, the defendant stuffed pieces of cotton wool into his mouth, throat and neck", the prosecution said.

'Hate new-born cry'

Mr Hankin said she told officers: "''I don't remember putting five pieces in there and I didn't shove my fingers down his throat and put them there'."

"'I was panicking and I just didn't know what else to do, and that was the first thing that came into my head, but I didn't shove them down there, I might have been panicking, but I'm not stupid ... that's not what I would have wanted'."

"Following the defendant's arrest, a police officer overheard Mayo say, having heard a new-born baby crying at (Hereford County) Hospital - 'I hate the new-born cry'," said the Crown's KC.

Mr Hankin said she later told police she could not remember saying that and didn't remember hearing a baby cry.Ms Mayo is alleged to have concealed both her pregnancy and her birth, claiming she was unaware she was carrying a child.

But a few weeks before delivery, she asked her mother, "what a half-Chinese, half-English baby would look like", Mr Hankin told the jury.

The trial continues.