Bodies Of Eight New-Born Babies Found

[Rapunzel]

A couple have been arrested after the bodies of eight new-born babies were found in northern France.

The corpses were discovered in individual plastic bags hidden around two houses in the tiny village of Villers-au-Tertre, about 35 miles from Lille.

Police were alerted after a family moved into their new home and found infant bones in the garden.

Officers traced the previous occupants, who were living less than a mile away in the hamlet.

Sniffer dogs found the bodies of more new-born babies there.

"Two people are being held in custody. They are the mother and father of the children," said public prosecutor Eric Vaillant.

Newspaper reports in France said the unnamed couple are both in their 40s.

Le Figaro said two of the bodies had been hidden in the first house for more than 20 years.

France has seen a string of cases in recent years of mothers killing their new-born babies and hiding the corpses.

In March, a 38-year-old mother was jailed for 15 years for killing six of her newborn babies and hiding their bodies in bin liners in the cellar of her home in Valognes, near Cherbourg.

Céline Lesage was found guilty of suffocating four babies and strangling two others after giving birth to them in secret between 2000 and 2007.

Another French woman, Veronique Courjault, was convicted last year of murdering three of her new-born children.

Her husband discovered two of the corpses in a freezer while the two were living in South Korea.

During the trial, psychiatrists said she suffered from a condition known as "pregnancy denial."



I think this is one of the most shocking story's I have ever heard. -1:-1



Bodies Of Eight New-Born Babies Found - Yahoo! News UK

French couple held after 8 dead babies found - Yahoo! News UK



Their inquiries led them to the couple's home in the village around a kilometre (less than a mile) away, where six more babies' bodies were found, the councillor said.

A judicial source said the case could turn out to be the deadliest infanticide incident ever known in France.

The detained couple were respected in the community, the councillor said. The husband worked in the building trade while his wife worked as a nursing assistant.

"I'm still in shock," the former mayor of the village, Daniel Collignon, told AFP, describing the village as a very calm and rural place.

Neighbours also reacted with astonishment to the news.

"They are normal people, who even have a role in the community," said one. "It's incredible."

Another neighbour, a man in his 50s, added: "These are attractive, helpful, polite and courteous people."

They had done nothing to suggest that they might be capable of abnormal behaviour, he said.

"The husband was even elected to the town council," he added.

[chonsigirl]

Such a sad story. The worst one this week was from Baltimore, where the girl had her baby, threw it out the second story window, and her family found it. Poor little baby.

'Baby Miracle' Thrown From Window, Survives - wjz.com

[Rapunzel]

That is such a sad story Chonsi. :-1 I am SO glad the baby was miraculously unhurt! :-4

I just don't see how someone cannot know they're pregnant. Even if they still have scanty periods they must be aware of their stomach growing, even a little bit. They must feel the baby moving. They must surely be aware of the possibility that they might be pregnant.

And how can the girls mother not be aware of her daughters mood swings or growing tum? The girl who is 'unaware' must be covering her body with baggy clothes.

Why is it so hard to turn to your mum or seek help? These sad stories shouldn't continue in this day and age.

Something I found very sad was before our Year 6's left school this summer. The boys, in the hot sunny lunchtimes, would play basketball or football. The girls would steal the basketballs or footballs and stuff them under their t-shirts and pretend to be pregnant. These girls are 10 or 11 years old.

You talk to them about what they want to do in life and how to make their dreams happen, but all they want is to have a baby, a living doll, and dress it up.

So many of them come from large families, with 5, 7 or even 10 children and usually several fathers to each family. Mum can't cope and leaves the children to raise themselves and all these poor children want is someone to love who loves them back.

Their parents haven't the time or the energy for them, their siblings are struggling to survive in the pack and so these girls think that they would love a baby who would love them back wholeheartedly.

And so the cycle continues. *sigh*

[chonsigirl]

Yes, it is so sad. All the girls at summer school asked about it, and what would happen to the baby. I told them everyone would want that baby, since her name would be Miracle.

What always made me sad-two of my old students-worked at the drug store down the street in their final year of high school. Both got college scholarships,

and went away to college. Each left two girls with babies. And they cared nothing for the baby-grandmothers won't even acknowledge the babies exist. (I see them all the time, with younger siblings) But two young girls have to survive to raise a baby, with only their own families helping them.

Baltimore is kind is small town for a big city-I am always going somewhere, there is a student, and half have babies way too young. They ask me things, I give them advice as best I can. But it makes me sad for them., and the babies.

[Rapunzel]

Like you, I live in a small market town. Everywhere you turn there are pregnant teens and teenage mums. They go around in groups with their friends, groups of teenage girls with their pushchairs and their babies. Its almost as if you HAVE to have a baby to be part of their group.

Hubby and I were shopping the other day when he got hungry and wanted a burger. We sat in McDonalds chatting away, he eating his burger whilst I sipped my OJ to keep him company. Suddenly he groaned loudly and I thought something was wrong with his burger until he pointed out of the window. There were a group of 3 teenage mums, laughing smoking chatting and hanging onto the handles of their buggies. Meanwhile all of their 3 toddlers were playing unwatched. One was playing in the gutter beside the road, the other two were sticking their fingers down a dirty old drain and pulling up bits of rubbish.

And you couldn't even say the mums didn't notice. They called to the kids to behave and then just carried on laughing smoking giggling and letting the kiddies carry on.

Our Year 6's last few weeks were spent on sex education. They learned about tampons and durex and epidurals and they filled in a booklet, but it felt just like work to them and not like real life. They would learn more by having teenage mums come in and tell them what its like being a young mum, having sleepless nights and no money, smelling baby sick and really poopy nappies and trying to understand that it's not the fun game they all seem to think it is.

[mikeinie]

Isn’t it just sickening? Killing your own babies.

You would think that after being pregnant 8 times, people would actually wonder where your kids are.

Also, the poor family who just bought and moved into that home, how could they continue living there? And now who would every buy it from them?

[OpenMind]

We have to bear in mind that the institutions of France and the rest of Europe were established a long time ago. England did not really become an institution until it was invaded by the Romans. Until then, it was just a holiday camp for the Norsemen and the Saxons.

When the Romans invaded Europe, the land was already entrenched in its Celtic ways whereas the British Isles was just a place for blue painted folk. Since then, England has come on in leaps and bounds. English is now the main language across the world.

It was and English scholar who first fought and died for the right of an English version of the Bible - John Porter I believe his name was. A Cambridge academician.

Though it may seem hard to believe for us in the UK and the USA, you've only got to remember that a century represents only a little bit more than the average lifetime. Though I am only half a century old, I have come to respect how shoret a time that is.

Unlike main Europe, England's history has involved a lot of invasions which has shaped our general philosophy. On the other hand, mainland Europe was already well established and entrenched in history before the Romans invaded it.

It was an Englishman who fought and died for an English version of the Bible, and it was the French, and other European countries who resisted the idea of both translating the Bible and distributing it to the common folk.

In short, what I am trying to say is that while we see the accounts reported here as abysmal and avoidable, the French (among other European countries), are still entrenched in old-fashioned ideals.

Stories like these are a reminder of what it was like to live under a religious constitution.

[Clodhopper]

Think your history is a bit wonky (the Romans invaded before the Saxons and Angles who came in when the Romans left and were in their turn invaded by various Norsemen about 400 years later).

I assume your point is that under a Catholic settlement (Condoms and the Pill are evil) there is no acceptable prevention, and for those who get pregnant and don't want the child there is no legal and socially acceptable way of aborting. Result: murdered babies.

I suspect this was a common feature of life in the Old Days. Certainly the Ancient Greeks and Romans had places where unwanted babies could be abandoned. Don't think we can blame just the Catholic Church for this one. Though it certainly hasn't helped.

[OpenMind]

Clodhopper;1325419 wrote: Think your history is a bit wonky (the Romans invaded before the Saxons and Angles who came in when the Romans left and were in their turn invaded by various Norsemen about 400 years later).

I assume your point is that under a Catholic settlement (Condoms and the Pill are evil) there is no acceptable prevention, and for those who get pregnant and don't want the child there is no legal and socially acceptable way of aborting. Result: murdered babies.

I suspect this was a common feature of life in the Old Days. Certainly the Ancient Greeks and Romans had places where unwanted babies could be abandoned. Don't think we can blame just the Catholic Church for this one. Though it certainly hasn't helped.


I stand corrected on my history - never was my best subject.

The Romans, I recall reading last year on a website, used to leave their unwanted babies in certain places for the purpose. It wasn't considered actually acceptable and the mites would have suffered as they slowly died of starvation and exposure if no one took them in. If they were taken in by someone, they would only ever be a slave of the family they were taken in by.

Their experiences as a slave would depend on the family they were taken in by but as for the being left to die, it seems to me that killing them outright is a more humane practice.

[Clodhopper]

Sorry - am a complete pedant at times.

I think the point that I'm groping towards is that since we know the Ancients were doing it, and we know the modern French are still doing it (I'd be surprised if this is a truly isolated case) it seems likely that over the two thousand or so years we are talking about then millions of babies have been put out to die.

[OpenMind]

That's a mind-boggling thought. I have to agree with you. The cases we read about are just the tip of the iceberg.

[Rapunzel]

Latest update:

French Baby Killer: Daughters In Shock

The two adult daughters of a Frenchwoman who confessed to suffocating eight of her newborn babies and hiding their bodies have said they are in shock and "didn't notice anything".

Dominique Cottrez, 46, and her husband Pierre-Marie were arrested over what could be France's biggest infanticide case.

The woman from Villers-au-Tertre, about 125 miles north of Paris, has been charged by police and is accused of "murder of minors under the age of 15".

Her husband, a carpenter in his 40s, was freed because there was not enough evidence to charge him.

He denied knowing about the babies being born or killed.

The couple's daughters, who were in court earlier to support their parents, said: "We have been aware of this for days now and it's still hard to understand.

"It's incomprehensible, mother with secrets. We didn't notice anything. She had moments of fatigue it's true, but she worked almost 24 hours a day between her job as a care worker and household chores."

The daughters both have a son each. The eldest daughter said that when her child was born "mum was in the maternity wing with me when I gave birth.

"She held him and she dressed him. We both had tears in our eyes."

Cottrez initially confessed in custody to smothering two children at birth about 10 years ago, before admitting she killed the other six.

The killer said, after a bad experience with her first pregnancy, that she never wanted to see a doctor again.

Prosecutor Eric Vaillant said: "She explained that she didn't want any more children and that she didn't want to see a doctor to take contraceptives."



French Baby Killer: Daughters In Shock - Yahoo! News UK