A young mother has been sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison for the murder of her newborn son when she was 15 years old.
The teenager, Paris Mayo, now 19, had denied the charges of killing her child, who she gave birth to alone at her home in Ross-on-Wye four years ago.
However, after a six-week trial at Worcester Crown Court, she was convicted on Friday.
This afternoon, she received the sentence of serving at least 12 years for the crime.
The prosecution argued that the baby's death was a result of a deliberate assault on his head and suffocation using cotton wool.
During the sentencing, Mr. Justice Garnham referred to the case as "sad and tragic."
He described Mayo, who attended John Kyrle school and later Monmouth Comprehensive before pursuing a beauty course at Gloucester College, as "pathetic."
He mentioned that options like abortion were available to her.
The judge stated, "Killing your baby son was a truly dreadful thing to do.
A human being is probably never more vulnerable than at the time of their birth. You had decided you could no longer allow him to live.
You were trying to convince yourself that you weren't pregnant, you didn't want to acknowledge the truth."
The trial revealed that Mayo concealed her pregnancy from her family and gave birth alone in the living room of their Springfield Avenue home on the evening of March 23, 2019, while her father, who passed away ten days later, was undergoing dialysis upstairs.
The following morning, her mother discovered the dead baby's body in a bin bag on the doorstep, alongside her son.
The court heard that the mother was too upset to attend the sentencing.
The Crown Prosecution Service issued a statement, expressing that after Mayo's conviction, Stanley's "short life was filled with pain and suffering when he should have been nurtured and loved."
They built their case on medical evidence, which proved that Mayo's actions were deliberate, as she chose to hide her pregnancy, give birth alone, and kill her baby, even though she had a family who would have supported her.
Detective Inspector Julie Taylor, the senior investigating officer for the case, said, "The death of a newborn baby is utterly heart-breaking, even more so when the person responsible is the baby's own mother.
This has been a devastating case for the investigative team to deal with, and I would like to thank those involved for their outstanding efforts to ensure justice has been served today."
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