Paris Mayo: Teenage mother who bagged-up newborn like 'rubbish' at Hereford home guilty of murder

Warning: Readers may find the details in this article upsetting

A teenage mother who put her newborn's "remains in a bin liner" at her parents’ home has been found guilty of murder at Worcester Crown Court.

Paris Mayo, who is now 19 but was 15 at the time of the incident, went on trial accused of killing Stanley Mayo before putting him in a bin bag at her parents' home in Springfield Avenue, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, on March 23 2019.

She is alleged to have concealed both her pregnancy and her delivery of the baby, alone and unaided, claiming she was unaware she was carrying.

She assaulted Stanley and stuffed cotton wool balls down his throat before putting his body in a bin bag and leaving it on the front doorstep before going to bed.

The teenager had earlier denied causing Stanley’s complex skull fractures, thought to have been caused by her foot on his head, and claimed her son was already dead when he was born.

Cotton wool was found in the newborn's throat, court hears

She is alleged to have inflicted complex skull fractures on baby Stanley, which could have possibly been caused by her foot on his head.

The teenager then stuffed five pieces of cotton wool into his mouth – two of which were found deep in the throat, preventing him from breathing.

After giving birth in a living room, she then put Stanley’s body in a bin bag and left it on the front doorstep of her parents home before going upstairs to bed.

Stanley’s remains were discovered the following morning by Mayo’s mother who had looked inside the bloodstained bag and immediately called 999, the court was told.

Mayo appeared in court on Friday wearing a black t-shirt, a black and white patterned skirt and white Converse trainers.

She denied killing her baby and claimed Stanley’s head hit the floor as she gave birth suddenly and unexpectedly.

However, the jury rejected her defence and found her guilty of murder.

The jury of five men and seven women returned a majority guilty verdict on Friday afternoon.

Following the verdict, judge Mr Justice Garnham remanded Mayo, of Ruardean in Gloucestershire, into custody to be sentenced on Monday 26 June.

A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said: "This is a tragic and complex case. Stanley Mayo’s short life was filled with pain and suffering when he should have been nurtured and loved.

"The prosecution built a case based on medical evidence which proved that Paris Mayo’s actions were deliberate, she chose to hide her pregnancy, give birth alone and kill her baby, then hide his body despite accepting that she had a family who would have supported her.

"I would like to thank the jury for their careful consideration of this difficult case."

What was said during the murder trial?

Judges and jurors at Worcester Crown Court heard Mayo did not want the baby nor know she was pregnant.

Bernard Richmond KC, defending, asked her on the stand whether at any time before Stanley was born she knew she was pregnant.

“No, I was always scared of the thought I might be. I had never taken a test and it telling me I was pregnant,” Mayo told the jury.

She said she would rather not know than take a test and made excuses to herself and say gaining weight was "down to other things."

The jurors were told Stanley would have been conceived when Mayo was 14 with the teenager losing her virginity at 13.

Jurors heard how Mayo had told police she "cuddled him goodbye, kissed him on the forehead" then "gently placed him in (a bin bag)."Mayo's police statements were re-read out in court by prosecution barrister Chloe Ashley.

It read, 'when asked by police how two of the cotton wool balls could have got into the baby’s throat, she claimed to be “panicking because he had all this blood coming out of his mouth”, and started “cleaning it up”.'

Mayo had said "When I saw the baby, he was on the floor, I saw his umbilical cord was around his throat, he wasn’t crying, making any noise, he wasn’t moving, he wasn’t like a normal baby colour."

"I knew I couldn’t help him, knew he wasn’t going to come alive, so I just wiped all this blood up and left it (the cotton wool) in there (his mouth)… so it would absorb all the blood."

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