French couple due in court after eight baby deaths
29/07/2010 - 11:27:56A French couple were due in court today accused of murdering eight of their newborn babies.
The corpses were found on two different parts of their property in Villers-au-Tertre, near Lille.
The couple, in their mid-40s, are appearing before a French investigative magistrate.
Prosecutors are expected to press for charges of manslaughter against the woman and failure to report a crime and concealment of corpses against the husband.
Police have sealed the doors, gate and windows of the house where the remains of some of the babies were discovered.
France has seen a string of cases in recent years of mothers killing their babies and saving and hiding the corpses.
In one of the recent cases Celine Lesage was jailed in March for 15 years after admitting killing six of her babies, whose corpses were found in plastic bags in her basement.
Veronique Courjault, was convicted last year of murdering three of her children. Her husband discovered two of the corpses in a freezer while the two were living in South Korea. During the trial psychiatrists testified that she suffered from a psychological condition known as “pregnancy denial”.
Germany also has seen similar cases. In one, a woman was convicted of manslaughter in 2006 and sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison for killing eight of her newborn babies and burying them in flower pots and a fish tank in the garden of her parents’ home.
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