A teen who killed her newborn child after giving birth on her own at her parents’ house, sentenced to at least 12 years in prison.
On March 23, 2019, Paris Mayo, now 19, killed her son Stanley in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, when she was just 15.
After a six-week trial at Worcester Crown Court, she was found guilty of murder by the jury.
According to testimony given in court, Mayo gave birth to the child on her own while her parents were upstairs.
He was left with a fractured skull after she is thought to have placed her foot on his head.
Mayo ‘finished him off’ by stuffing cotton wool balls down his throat, before putting her son’s body in a bin bag and leaving it on the doorstep, then going to bed.
She is said to have sent her brother a text message saying the bag was ‘full of sick’ and asking him to put it in the bin.
But her mother discovered her grandson’s lifeless body the following morning when she looked inside the bloodstained bag, before calling 999, jurors heard.
Mayo sobbed as the sentence was passed and she was led out of the dock.
The judge, Mr Justice Garnham, told Mayo: ‘As difficult as your circumstances may have been, killing your baby son was a truly dreadful thing to do.
‘A human being is probably never more vulnerable that at the time of their birth,’ he said.
The judge added: ‘You did nothing to prepare yourself for giving birth. You were frightened and traumatised by this event.
‘I have no doubt it was painful and overwhelming for you. It seems you did not cry out, so anxious were you not to disturb your parents upstairs.
‘As soon as Stanley was born, you decided he could not live and you assaulted him about the head.
‘How you did this is not clear, but I suspect you crushed his head, probably beneath your foot.
‘It certainly caused him serious damage, but that assault did not kill Stanley.
‘He remained alive. You decided you had to finish Stanley off by stuffing cotton wool balls into his throat.
“As difficult as your circumstances may have been, killing your baby son was a truly dreadful thing to do.’
Mayo tried to cover up both her pregnancy and birth – claiming she didn’t know she was expecting.
Stanley was born full term weighing 7lb 12oz and is said to have lived for at least two hours.
Defending Mayo, Bernard Richmond KC described her as ‘immature’ and a ‘pathetic and vulnerable individual’.
‘When faced with a decision she had to make, she did not face up to it.
‘By the time she had to, the decision she made was woefully, woefully wrong.’
Mayo’s mother could not face seeing her daughter in the dock and her ’emotionally cruel’ father died 10 days after Stanley was born, the court heard.
Mr Richmond added: ‘It has been said she killed him too, and that adds to the burden upon her.
‘This will, in every sense of the word, be a life sentence. It will be a lonely, isolating and frightening time for her.’
Mayo must serve at least 12 years behind bars before she is eligible for parole.
In a statement after the sentencing, the Crown Prosecution Service said Stanley’s ‘short life was filled with pain and suffering when he should have been nurtured and loved’.
A spokesperson said: ‘The prosecution built a case based on medical evidence which proved that Paris Mayo’s actions were deliberate, she chose to hide her pregnancy, give birth alone and kill her baby, then hide his body despite accepting that she had a family who would have supported her.
‘Although Paris Mayo has been sentenced today, nothing can bring back poor Stanley who tragically lost his life before it even got a chance to begin.’