Woman who smothered newborn son in Fraserburgh in 2010 sentenced

Ineta Dzinguviene was jailed in 2011

A woman who admitted killing her newborn son by smothering him with clingfilm has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half years.

Ineta Dzinguviene had been found guilty of murder in Fraserburgh in 2010 and was jailed for life.

However, the murder conviction was quashed and she has now admitted the culpable homicide of her son on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Dzinguviene, now 38, was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.

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The jail-term was cut from 10 years due to the guilty plea and will be backdated to April 2010 when Dzinguviene was first remanded in custody.

It means she has effectively served the sentence, but faces being deported to her homeland of Lithuania to serve a 15-year jail term imposed for murdering another child, three-day old daughter Paulina, in the country in 2009.

The then 26-year-old was jailed for a minimum of 15 years at the High Court in Glasgow in June 2011, after the death of her son, who was later named Paulius Dzingus.

While undergoing therapy in prison, she disclosed details of a traumatic childhood and an abusive relationship.

'Must be punished'

The case was referred back to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh and the murder conviction was overturned.

Psychiatrists diagnosed her as suffering from conditions including post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the time of the killing.

Judge Lady Poole told her on Tuesday: "You are now 38 years old and have had a very difficult life.

"Although your culpability at the time was diminished by your mental state, the harm you caused was extreme. You took the life of your son. He was a newborn baby and you deprived him of his life.

"After you killed him, you hid his body in a bag amongst rubbish in the common stairway where you lived."

She said: "Killing a defenceless baby cannot be tolerated and you must be punished for what you did."