Paris Mayo: Teenager denies killing son to hide pregnancy

Prosecutors allege Ms Mayo put her foot on her baby's head before stuffing cotton wool down his throat

A teenager accused of murdering her newborn son has denied that she killed him to prevent her family from finding out that she was pregnant.

Paris Mayo, 19, was 15 when she gave birth to Stanley at her former home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, in 2019.

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

Ms Mayo told Worcester Crown Court that she had checked to see if he was breathing and if his chest was moving.

Warning - this article contains distressing content.

"When I looked at him, he genuinely wasn't moving," she said. "His eyes weren't open, he didn't make a noise."

She told the court that she had not believed Stanley had been alive, at any point after giving birth to him on 23 March 2019.

Ms Mayo told the court she had not believed Stanley had been alive at any point after giving birth to him

Under cross-examination by prosecution barrister Jonas Hankin KC, Ms Mayo said she did not remember stuffing cotton wool into the baby's mouth and throat, but accepted that it must have been her that put it there.

"I knew he wasn't breathing at all, that's what I made sure of before I done it," she had told the police during an interview.

The defendant said she had used the cotton wool to clean up blood which, she said had been coming from his mouth.

She had admitted putting two pieces of cotton wool into his mouth, but said she could not remember putting three more pieces into his throat and windpipe.

"I don't remember doing the three, the only ones I remember were the two in his mouth," she said.

"I've accepted the fact that they were there, and it was me, but I don't remember doing it."

The court has also heard she put the newborn into a black rubbish bag and had left it outside the family home.

Ms Mayo, who now lives in Ruardean, Gloucestershire, denied that she had no respect for her son, and said she had left him in the bag so that her mother would have found his body.

"I wanted him to be found," she said.

"I know that, now, I could have gone about it in a different way, I thought that was the right thing to do."

The trial continues.