Paris Mayo, who is now 19 but was 15 at the time, is accused of murdering her son Stanley Mayo at her parents’ home four years ago (Picture: Facebook / Getty Images)
A teenage mother assaulted her newborn and stuffed cotton wool down his throat to kill him, a court heard.
Paris Mayo, who is now 19 but was 15 at the time, is currently on trial at Worcester Crown Court accused of murdering her son Stanley Mayo at her parents’ home four years ago.
She was charged last year following an investigation by West Mercia Police.
Prosecutor Jonas Hankin KC said as he opened the case yesterday: ‘Between 9.30pm and 10.30pm on March 23, 2019, 15-year old Paris Mayo gave birth to a baby boy.
‘He was full- or near full-term and he was born alive.
‘The birth took place in the living room of the family home in Springfield Avenue, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, where she lived with her parents and her then 16-year-old brother George.
‘The defendant was alone and delivered the infant unaided.’
Mayo is currently on trial at Worcester Crown Court (Picture: Facebook)
Mr Hankin said her parents were upstairs at the time carrying out home dialysis for her father, who was unwell.
‘Following delivery, the defendant assaulted the baby, fracturing the upper left and upper right sides of the skull and causing a severe brain injury,’ he continued.
‘Approximately two hours later, realising the baby was still alive, the defendant stuffed pieces of cotton wool into his mouth, throat and neck.
‘The first piece to go in was forced down so deeply into the oesophagus – the tube through which we carry food to our stomachs – it was only discovered on dissection of the neck at autopsy.
‘This blocked his airway and he suffocated.
‘She then put the baby’s body in a bin bag and deposited the bin bag on the front doorstep outside the house, before going upstairs to bed.’
The next morning she messaged her brother to ask him to take the bin bag out and put it in the bin because it was ‘full of sick’.
But the bin bag was ‘unusually heavy’ and left ‘streaks of blood’ on the doorstep, leading Mayo’s mother to question what was in the bag and open it.
The trial is expected to last for six weeks (Picture: Getty Images)
Mr Hankin added: ‘She suddenly went hysterical and was heard to say, “There’s a baby in the bag,” and… “Paris has given birth.”‘
Mayo’s mother called 999 and was heard saying to her daughter in the background: ‘You could have told me, darling, you could have told me – poor baby,’ and repeating, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
Paramedics arrived to find Mayo’s mum holding the baby ‘wrapped in a sheet… and no sign of life’, with Mayo said next to her.
Mr Hankin said: ‘She [Mayo] said it [the baby] had “stuff coming out of its mouth” and she used cotton wool to try to clean it up.
‘She said she had put some cotton wool inside the baby’s mouth, to stop any more coming out, and later, in the ambulance, described this stuff as “fluid”.
‘She said she had put the baby in the bag because she didn’t know what to do.’
The teenager told another paramedic she ‘didn’t know she was pregnant’ and the baby ‘didn’t seem right’.
Mr Rankin added: ‘The defendant told the paramedic she was hoping her mum would think the bag was rubbish and throw it out.’
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Mayo was heard saying, ‘Is it my fault? Did I do this?’ and later, ‘It’s my fault, it’s my fault,’ while travelling to Hereford County Hospital in the back of an ambulance.
After arriving at hospital, she was heard saying: ‘It’s not my fault the baby died, is it? His head hit the floor and I was waiting for a noise.’
Mr Hankin said: ‘The prosecution says that the defendant killed the baby to prevent the discovery of her pregnancy and his birth. She didn’t want the baby.
‘Despite having parents and siblings – whom she acknowledges are loving and supportive and to whom she could have turned for help and advice – she murdered him.
‘The defendant says, on the other hand, that she gave birth suddenly and unexpectantly. She believed the baby was dead.
‘She never intended to kill the baby, or to seriously harm him and she made no attempt to conceal the birth.’
Mayo, of Ruardean in Gloucestershire, denies murder.
She wept as the trial opened, which is expected to continue for six weeks.
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Paris Mayo, who is now 19 but was 15 at the time, is accused of murdering her son Stanley Mayo at her parents’ home four years ago.