Gumleaf
November 24th, 2008, 05:19 PM
05:00 AEST Tue Nov 25 2008
By ninemsn staff
A cheating girlfriend accidently flushed her newborn baby down a toilet before hiding the infant's body in a car boot an inquest has heard.
Cardiff Coroner's Court was yesterday told Claire Jones fell pregnant after she cheated on her partner of 11 years with a colleague from work, the Press Association reports.
Jones hid her condition from those close to her, including partner David Stoneman, claiming an allergy to wheat made her stomach bloat.
On December 28 last year, a week after the baby's due date, Jones experience pains but attributed them to the diarrhoea she was suffering.
Jones told the court she did not know she had given birth to a son until flushing the toilet at Stoneman's parents home in South Wales.
"While I was still on the toilet, I flushed it, and I felt something pull," Ms Jones told the court.
"I stood up slightly, and I could see a foot in the bowl of the toilet."
Jones said after she saw the boy's foot she pulled it from the bowl and put him into her lap where she felt for a pulse but there was nothing.
She said did not call for help because she was panicked and attempted to revive him by herself.
"I just kept trying and trying and it wasn't working — he was blue," Jones told the court.
"I wrapped him in a towel — I don't remember how, but I must have put him in the boot of the car."
The body of the baby, called Daniel, was found in Jones' car and she was arrested 10 days later.
A pathologist said if the 3.4kg boy had survived birth, drowning was the likely cause of death.
Coroner Mary Hassell said Ms Jones had built up a "web of deception" to conceal the pregnancy and birth and recorded a narrative verdict describing the circumstances of Daniel's death, dismissing Ms Jones' account that she didn't realise she had given birth.
Jones was sentenced to 48 weeks in prison suspended for two years at Cardiff Crown Court in August after admitting to concealing the birth.
The 32-year-old broke down in the dock when she realised she would not be sent to prison.
By ninemsn staff
A cheating girlfriend accidently flushed her newborn baby down a toilet before hiding the infant's body in a car boot an inquest has heard.
Cardiff Coroner's Court was yesterday told Claire Jones fell pregnant after she cheated on her partner of 11 years with a colleague from work, the Press Association reports.
Jones hid her condition from those close to her, including partner David Stoneman, claiming an allergy to wheat made her stomach bloat.
On December 28 last year, a week after the baby's due date, Jones experience pains but attributed them to the diarrhoea she was suffering.
Jones told the court she did not know she had given birth to a son until flushing the toilet at Stoneman's parents home in South Wales.
"While I was still on the toilet, I flushed it, and I felt something pull," Ms Jones told the court.
"I stood up slightly, and I could see a foot in the bowl of the toilet."
Jones said after she saw the boy's foot she pulled it from the bowl and put him into her lap where she felt for a pulse but there was nothing.
She said did not call for help because she was panicked and attempted to revive him by herself.
"I just kept trying and trying and it wasn't working — he was blue," Jones told the court.
"I wrapped him in a towel — I don't remember how, but I must have put him in the boot of the car."
The body of the baby, called Daniel, was found in Jones' car and she was arrested 10 days later.
A pathologist said if the 3.4kg boy had survived birth, drowning was the likely cause of death.
Coroner Mary Hassell said Ms Jones had built up a "web of deception" to conceal the pregnancy and birth and recorded a narrative verdict describing the circumstances of Daniel's death, dismissing Ms Jones' account that she didn't realise she had given birth.
Jones was sentenced to 48 weeks in prison suspended for two years at Cardiff Crown Court in August after admitting to concealing the birth.
The 32-year-old broke down in the dock when she realised she would not be sent to prison.