Schoolgirl who was 15 when she killed newborn son is guilty of murder

Teenage mother breaks down in court as she is convicted of murdering her newborn son when she was 15 by stuffing cotton wool in his mouth then putting his lifeless body in a bin bag

• WARNING: Distressing content is described in this article 

A teenage mother has been found guilty today of murdering her newborn son at her parents’ house when she was just 15.

Paris Mayo, now 19, cried in the dock after jurors at Worcester Crown Court took just eight hours and 38 minutes of deliberation to convict her of deliberately killing son Stanley Mayo.

She inflicted complex skull fractures on baby Stanley at her parents’ home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire on March 23 2019.

After causing the bone breaks – believed to have been caused by her foot on his head – she then stuffed five pieces of cotton wool into his mouth – two of which were found deep in the throat.

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

Stanley’s remains were discovered the following morning by Ms Mayo’s mother who had looked inside the bloodstained bag.

Mayo was remanded into custody to be sentenced on Monday. 

Paris Mayo (pictured at court), who is now 19 but was 15 at the time of the incident, killed her newborn Stanley Mayo

She had lied throughout the trial as she gave evidence she never knew she was pregnant.

Earlier Worcester Crown Court heard Stanley had been conceived in the summer of 2018 and by the autumn Mayo was suffering from sickness and back and abdominal pain.

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

READ MORE: Teenage mother accused of murdering her baby boy after ‘suddenly and unexpectedly’ giving birth at age 15 said ‘I hate the new-born cry’, court hears

‘No, I was always scared of the thought I might be. I had never taken a test,’ Ms Mayo told the jury.

‘I was more suspicious I could have been, rather than actually knowing if I was or not.

‘I would just try and make excuses to myself to what I thought was wrong. I was worried I might be as I was putting on weight, but I was trying to put it down to other things.

‘I was eating bigger portions of food and eating throughout the day.’

Mr Richmond asked: ‘Was there a stage before the birth you said to yourself, ‘I am pregnant’?’ to which Ms Mayo replied: ‘No.’

Describing her on and off sickness in the autumn of 2018, Mayo told the court: ‘I think there were times when I was sick, but it would go back and come away – it was irregular.

‘I thought it was a stomach bug that went away, or I had eaten something that disagreed with me.’

Mr Richmond asked: ‘Did you ever equate that with being pregnant?’, Ms Mayo replied: ‘No.’

Jurors were told the accused had been taken to see her GP in October 2018 by her mother and during the examination was asked if she was having sex.

Ms Mayo told the court: ‘She asked me at that time if I was having sex and at that time I told her no because at that time I wasn’t,’ she said.

‘I think I must have misunderstood how she was asking it. I felt like I could have told her if I felt comfortable enough, but I didn’t know how to go about it.’

Mr Richmond asked if her mother knew she had been having sex and she replied: ‘I think she knew I had but she thought I had stopped having sex with people.

‘I think she knew before that I had lost my virginity but believed I had stopped having sex with people.’

Mayo (pictured) is alleged to have ‘cuddled him goodbye and kissed him on the head’ before putting him in a bin bag, a murder trial heard today

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

Explaining why she started having sex so young, she said: ‘I just thought it was a way to get people to like me because I was quite insecure about the way I looked and the way I was made to feel about myself at home because my family situation was quite bad.

‘I was always being patronised and belittled and told I was worthless. I just wanted to feel a bit more validated and the way I felt to get that was to have sex with people.’

Ms Mayo told the jury she only acknowledged to herself being pregnant shortly before she gave birth.

‘He wasn’t crying or making any noise and his eyes weren’t open,’ she said.

‘I started to panic because he wasn’t crying or making a noise and I got really scared. It all happened so fast, I don’t really remember a lot about it.

‘I just remember he hit his head and that was really it. The cord was around his throat when I undone it and that was when it was broken.’

Mr Richmond asked: ‘Stanley had skull fractures. Did you do them to him deliberately?’

Ms Mayo replied: ‘No.’

Asked about putting cotton wool balls in Stanley’s mouth, she replied: ‘To me it looked like there was stuff coming out of his mouth. When I was questioned I said two because that’s all I remember doing.’

Asked how she felt about it all, Ms Mayo said: ‘It makes me feel really horrible because I knew I didn’t want to hurt him.

‘I do feel stupid that I didn’t go and tell anyone and get help. I loved him. I always think about what he would be like and how he would have been.’

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