A YOUNG Coventry mother who killed her newborn baby by placing her in a cereal box shortly after birth and concealing the box in a suitcase has been jailed for murder.
Jia Xin Teo, 22, of Raglan Street, was found guilty on Thursday at Warwick Crown Court of one count of murder.
At the same court yesterday (Friday) she was jailed for a minimum of 17 years.
Police were called to an address in Raglan Street on March 6 after concerns were raised for the child.
Officers attended and sadly found her body in a box.
Teo, a student from Malaysia who arrived in the United Kingdom earlier this year to study at Coventry University, concealed her pregnancy and gave birth to a full-term baby on March 4.
She placed her in a cereal box, then inside a sealable plastic bag and then into a suitcase.
By the time police discovered her little body two days later, the baby was dead.
Teo denied murdering her baby and said she had been hearing voices which told her to kill the baby/harm the baby. But the jury rejected that defence and found her guilty of murder.
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.”
He added she lied to friends who cared about her, to doctors at the hospital and to the police so 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 have 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.”
She will be sentenced at a later date.
