Schoolgirl on murdr count

[pies4ever]

Schoolgirl on murder count
By CHRIS TINKLER
14nov04

A TEENAGE Victorian schoolgirl faces a murder trial after her baby son died within minutes of his birth.

It is claimed the accused teen denies ever being pregnant. She is back at school and working part-time in a shop.
The school has been accused of failing to support a vulnerable student unable to accept her condition.

The only memorial to the boy, identified as "Baby" because he was not formally named, is a temporary marker by his grave.

While many people in the community who know about the incident deny anything happened, childcare and education experts have said some blame lies within the school.

They accuse the school of not supporting a student clearly unable to accept she had fallen pregnant.

"How can a girl go through a pregnancy and give birth in the family home with no support?" a social worker asked.

State opposition education spokesman Victor Perton yesterday said: "Based on the facts known, there should be an Education Department inquiry into the way in which this girl's health and mental welfare was looked after by the school.

"We need to build systems that will care for girls."

The girl, 18, from a central Victorian town, became pregnant about a year ago, apparently to a boyfriend from school. The relationship later broke up.

It is claimed the pregnancy proceeded unassisted. Sources close to her family say that not once did she visit a doctor.

It is alleged the girl and her parents, with whom she lives in a modest brick veneer home, struggled to come to terms with the fact she was carrying a child.

The sources allege that when asked if she was pregnant, even though her condition was obvious, the teenager always denied it.

Most worrying was that nobody intervened to help the student, the sources said.

It is believed a teacher at her school approached her about her condition, but the student again denied she was pregnant.

While she was stopped from taking part in school sport, she was not referred for psychiatric support, it was claimed.

On August 17, the girl secretly went into labour at home and it was alleged that within moments of giving birth, she wrapped the baby boy in a blanket and that soon after he was dead.

Some time later, the teenager's mother arrived home, found her with the dead boy wrapped in a blanket and took them to the town hospital.

The girl's mother apparently said she believed the baby had been stillborn. But after medical staff examined the baby, police were called.

It is understood the child died of head injuries.

Police confirm a post mortem on August 19 showed the baby suffered head injuries.

The girl was charged with murder on August 20 and appeared briefly before a magistrate's court, where she was remanded in custody and the case was adjourned until December 9. She did not make a plea.

On August 26, she was granted bail to the care of her parents by the Supreme Court in Melbourne and the teenager was back at her school soon after.

"It was a well-known fact that she was pregnant, but she was in extreme denial," a source claims.

"When people spoke to her about her pregnancy, even at eight months, she would say, `I'm not pregnant'.

The source said staff who knew the girl was pregnant should have phoned authorities for advice.

"In these cases, there is a real danger that the mother is going to harm the baby or have it on the quiet, hiding it.

"The parents say they had no contact at all with the school and that the girl never went to a doctor the entire time she was pregnant.

"She was in denial and everyone else seemed happy to go along with it. I understand she has had some counselling since, but I believe she is still in complete and utter denial."

Neither the girl, her mother, father, nor the school principal would speak about the incident this week.

The Homicide Squad in Melbourne confirmed it was handling the investigation.

In the meantime, the girl continued her school and work routine this week.

In another development, an application was made by an unknown person to the Coroner's Court for DNA tests to be carried out on tissue samples from the baby, possibly to clarify the identity of the father.


http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11379345%255E661,00.html

[Joel]

Yeah, I read about that. Obviously the girl has some serious psychological issues. Surely her family would have known what was going on.

[David]

Surely the law must be a bit strange if a girl can be convicted of murder for allegedly killing her seconds-old baby, and yet I presume it would have been a legal abortion a few days before birth (if they could prove Down syndrome or something)?

[gobbles21]

abortions are only allowed up until the fetus is a certain age

[Joel]

I was going to say the same thing. It has to be in the first tri-mester or something - anyone care to confirm?

[Go_The_Mighty_Magpies]

Yeah I'm pretty sure legal abortions are only able to take place within the first trimester, but a few dodgy ones are still done later in pregnancies. Some of the stories we had to look at in an issue on it for english were discusting.

She would have probably still been in trouble if she had some sort of abortion soon before she gave birth, but I doubt it would be murder.

[David]

Yes I believe you're right about abortions being in the first trimester, but I think if there can be any defects proven, it can be anywhere almost up to birth I think. Andrew Bolt from the HS wrote a few times about it.... I think there were a few like 32 weeks or something, which is like 80% of the pregnancy.

[Kelpelican]

You can have a late term abortion if having the baby will harm the baby
This includes mental anguish
A woman who is in her third trimester can have an abortion if she is threatening suicide or may have an abortion if she has blood poisoning or something