Mother who beat her newborn baby to death and stuffed it inside a teddy bear is jailed for just a year in Switzerland
- Jelica S. went into labour with twins two months early at her home in Switzerland
- 23-year-old told court she delivered first boy before beating him against a wall
- She hid his body inside a teddy bear before giving birth to his twin 31 hours later
- Second baby was stillborn, and she hid his body in the laundry before collapsing
- Judge found Jelica guilty of murder and death by negligence, but sentenced her to just one year in jail after ruling she was under mental strain
A woman who gave birth at home to twins before beating one of them to death and stuffing the other stillborn baby into a laundry basket has been jailed for a year.
The mother, identified only as 23-year-old Serbian Jelica S., told a court in Lucerne, Switzerland, that she panicked after going into labour two months early having split up with the babies’ father after he pressured her to get an abortion.
Jelica explained how she was at the home she shared with her mother and sister in December 2015 when contractions started, and she jumped into the bath and began looking up advice online.
Jelica S, now 23, gave birth to twin boys at home in December 2015 after going into labour two months early, shortly after the babies’ father had left her
Jelica admitted hitting one of the boys against the wall to kill him and hiding his body inside a teddy bear, and dumping the other stillborn boy into a pile of laundry
She said: ‘I did not know how a child is born. I filled the bathtub when it started. I do not remember today how I did it.
‘I just remember lying in the bathtub and looking on the internet for what to do.’
Jelica delivered the first baby herself but told the court: ‘I was scared because he (the baby) did not scream properly.’
Blick reports that Jelica’s mother was home at the time, but incredibly did not hear the birth taking place.
Stuffing the silent infant under her clothes, Jelica went and got the basement key from her mother before going downstairs and hitting the child against the wall.
She then threw him to the ground, causing him to suffer multiple skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury.
Jelica then wrapped the baby inside an old Mickey Mouse T-shirt before hiding him inside a giant pink teddy bear.
In court, she said: ‘I just put him there. I do not know what went on in my head.’
Some 31 hours later she delivered the second baby boy, again in the bath, and explained that he was stillborn.
Jelica wrapped the dead body in a towel and hid it in a laundry basket in the kitchen.
Jelica was sentenced to one year in jail and 22 months on conditional release after a judge ruled that she had been under a lot of mental pressure
An expert told the court that if Jelica had gone to hospital after the first birth, the second child might have survived.
Jelica explained that she collapsed from blood loss after the second birth and was taken to hospital by her mother, who had arrived home.
Police were called after doctors realised she must have given birth, but could find no trace of the children.
Jelica, who lived in Lucerne, was found guilty of killing one of her twin boys deliberately while the court found the other one died through negligence.
Prosecutors, who said Jelica S. had been unable to afford to pay for an abortion, had called for her to be jailed for eight years.
The prosecutor said: ‘The accused has two faces. She seems naive. In truth, she is tough and calculating.’
But the female judge sentenced Jelica S. to spend 12 months in prison with an additional 22 months on conditional release.
She said in her verdict that the court ‘estimates the factual culpability to the crime to be very high’, but on the other hand said it ‘subjectively was an emergency situation’.
A court psychiatrist also suggested Jelica suffered from an ‘adjustment disorder with prolonged depressive reaction’, which may have contributed to her mindset.