Jia Xin Teo was convicted by a jury at Warwick Crown Court
A young woman has been convicted of murdering her newborn baby in Coventry. Jia Xin Teo was said to have ‘placed her baby in a cereal box shortly after giving birth and concealed the box in a suitcase.’
Student Teo, 22, arrived in the UK earlier this year from Malaysia to study at Coventry University. She concealed her pregnancy and gave birth to a full-term baby on March 4.
She placed the newborn baby in a cereal box, which she put inside a sealable plastic bag and then into a suitcase, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. Police were alerted two days later, by which time the baby had died.
Teo, of Raglan Street, Coventry, denied murdering her baby and said she had been hearing voices that told her to kill the baby, the CPS said. Jurors rejected that defence and found her guilty of murder today (October 24) at Warwick Crown Court.
James Leslie Francis, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Jia Xin Teo hid her pregnancy from everyone she knew and arrived in the UK knowing that she was likely to give birth here. She had opportunity to seek help but instead chose to carry her pregnancy in secret and give birth alone.
“After she gave birth, she still did not tell anybody and refused to go to the hospital to get checked. She lied to friends who cared about her, to doctors at the hospital, and to the police so that no one found her baby.
“She did not tell the police where she hid her baby until two days had passed by which time the baby would certainly be dead. Baby Teo was alive after birth and could have survived, but Jia Xin Teo made the decision to place her inside a cereal box, knowing that it would kill her.
“Today, the jury has made the decision to convict her for her actions, and I would like to thank the jury for their careful consideration in this complex and sensitive case.”
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