PETALING JAYA (ANN/THE STAR) – Teo Jia Xin, a 22-year-old Malaysian student, has been found guilty of murdering her newborn daughter by placing the infant in a cereal box.
According to documents from the Warwick Crown Court, Judge Tipples stated that Teo had planned the act from the outset.
On the day of the incident, she reportedly declined assistance from both friends and paramedics while seated on the bathroom floor of her student accommodation, having just given birth and surrounded by her own blood.
“The birth was not straightforward, but was complicated by significant blood loss. You were in considerable pain, weak and exhausted, and struggling to stand.
“You(r) baby was alive and well – a full-term healthy baby. But you did not want her. You cut the umbilical cord with a pair of scissors and the baby was alone with you in the bathroom, and she was soon crying,” she said.
Tipples said that Teo had screamed at friends and paramedics, who had made their way into her room and found the large amounts of blood, to leave.
“… because you were determined to get rid of the baby, you also knew that you could not get any help for yourself until you had hidden her body and attempted to clear up the mess in your room caused by the bleeding.
“I am sure that is why, when your baby was still alive, you shut yourself in the bathroom with her and sent away all those trying to help you, including the paramedics from the ambulance.
“That is because you knew that, as soon as any of them set foot in the bathroom, they would have found your baby alive, which was the very thing you did not want to happen.
“Once they had all gone, and left you alone, you killed your baby and hid her body, which is what you had planned to do,” she said.
Tipples added that only after killing her baby, Teo had agreed to go to the hospital for medical help.
“It was only having done so, that you agreed to go to hospital and get the medical help you needed because you had lost so much blood.
“It was then in hospital that your plan to get rid of your baby unravelled, as the doctors’ examination of your body revealed the truth of what had happened, and the fact you had had a baby was no longer a secret,” she said.
Tipples sentenced Teo to life in prison with a minimum of 17 years before the chance of parole.
