Infanticide

Infanticide is the intentional killing of an infant

Case 1 - Baby Peter Connelley

He was born to Tracey Connelly on 1 March 2006 in London. Her new boyfriend, Steven Barker, moved in with her in November. A month later bruises were found on his face and chest by a GP. Due to this his mother was arrested. Peter got put into care of a family friend but was allowed back to his mothers care in January 2007. Within the next few months Peter got admitted to hospital suffering from injuries. She was then arrested again in May 2007.

Peter was seen at St. Ann's Hospital in North London by a locum paediatrician in August 2007. Broken back and ribs went undetected due to being pre dated to this examination, so a day later Tracey was told she will not be prosecuted.

The very next day an ambulance was called to find Peter in his cot wearing only a nappy and was blue and clad. He was pronounced dead at 12:20pm. The post mortem revealed he had swallowed a tooth after being punched. He also had a broken back and ribs, mutilated fingertips and missing fingernails.

A murder investigation was carried out and Tracey was arrested. Also her boyfriend Steven, his brother Jason and his girlfriend were all arrested who were hiding in a forest campsite.

This infanticide has been highly reported using media. Newspapers such as The Guardian, Sun, Daily Mail, BBC and many more have all followed the story but had very different opinions on who is to blame. Interestingly write ups hardly mention it as being the parents fault, even though they are the ones who physically committed the crimes. The blame is all on social workers and the company's who should of been able to help the situation.

Even to this day the Mothers life is being publicised, for example she wants the NHS to pay £7,000 for her to have a gastric band which will give her weight loss. This is because she wants to find a new male for her life.

The articles I have read on this story don't seem to favour either the Mother or her boyfriend but target a female social worker.

 Case 2 - French lady kills 8 children

In July 2010 two bodies were discovered in plastic bags while new house owners were working on the garden. The house was previously owned to Dominique Cottrez and her husband Pierre-Marie Cottrez. The police contacted the family about what had been found and immediately Dominique admitted that the bodies were two infants she had given birth too. She also then openly admitted to six more children's bodies that were in the garage. All eight bodies were born over an 17 year period.

This infanticide has been highly reported using media. By simply typing her name into Google hundreds of pages appear all with information on her crime and her life.

Interestingly the male is hardly mentioned in any reports. He was a carpenter and also was part of the village council. He was described as a  "decent, well-meaning type" by a mayor. He was arrested on suspicion of failing to report the crimes but was released very soon after without charge.




In both these cases the Mothers are clearly very confused and not right, very similar to Medea.  Medea is very open about killing her children, whereas the second case shows that the Mother kept it a secret for many years.

The way in which the second case Mother disposed of the bodies showed no remorse towards the children, very similary to Medea who left the bodies lying next to her while talking to Jason.



















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide#Greece_and_Rome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Cottrez

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10803080