Paris Mayo: Murder-accused mother cuddled and kissed him goodbye, court hears

Miss Mayo is accused of fracturing her son's skull before putting him in a bin bag

A teenage mother accused of murdering her newborn son "cuddled him goodbye, kissed him on the forehead" then placed him in a bag, jurors have been told.

Paris Mayo allegedly killed her son Stanley at her parents' home in Springfield Avenue, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, in March 2019.

She is accused of fracturing his skull, possibly with her foot, and stuffing pieces of cotton wool into his mouth.

Miss Mayo, who was 15 at the time, denies his murder.

Stanley is thought to have lived just over two hours, although Miss Mayo claimed in police interviews played to jurors at Worcester Crown Court on Thursday that he never showed signs of life.

She allegedly concealed her pregnancy and the birth of her son, which she managed alone at the family home on 23 March, the court has been told.

Warning - this article contains distressing content.

In her interviews with police which were read in court on Thursday, Miss Mayo claimed two cotton wool balls that were found in his throat were due to her panicking because Stanley "had all this blood coming out of his mouth", and she started "cleaning it up".

She admitted she could have been a bit rough and they could have gone down his throat, but her "whole finger never went into his mouth".

The court heard Miss Mayo, of Ruardean in Gloucestershire, did not want to wake her mother who was asleep upstairs at the time because she did not want her to be ashamed of her.

She gave birth at about 21:30 GMT in a downstairs sitting room after her parents had gone to bed after suffering cramps for 48 hours beforehand.

"When I was stood, I got sharp pain, I put my head on my arms and heard something make a noise - you could hear something hit the floor," she said.

'Wasn't moving'

"I looked down and I saw him and I just thought 'oh God'.

"When I saw the baby, he was on the floor, I saw his umbilical cord was around his throat, he wasn't crying, making any noise, he wasn't moving, he wasn't like a normal baby colour."

She said she put her son on a rug, and got water and a towel to clean up then saw Stanley "had blood coming out of his mouth and I was like 'oh no'".

She said she thought the cotton wool would "absorb" the blood in his mouth.

Worcester Crown Court heard she gave birth alone in a sitting room at her parents' house

"I knew I couldn't help him, knew he wasn't going to come alive, so I just wiped all this blood up and left it in there (his mouth)... so it would absorb all the blood", jurors heard.

She said she then got a black bag and put him inside, telling police "I don't know why I just wanted it all to be over with".

"I opened it up and put it on the floor, so he wouldn't fall in or hurt himself, I picked him up and I cuddled him goodbye.

"He still wasn't doing anything.

"I kissed him on his forehead, gently placed him in there, (and) put the placenta in next to him."

She said she tied the bag, picked it up "from the bottom where he was" and put it by the front door "on purpose" for her mother to find, before she said she went upstairs to bed.

The court previously heard she text her brother the next morning to ask him to put the bag "which was full of sick" in the bin.

Her mother made the discovery as she picked up the "unusually heavy" bag and called emergency services.

The trial, expected to last six weeks, continues.