A mother has been given a two year suspended prison sentence at Leicester Crown Court after she admitted to killing her newborn baby son 52 years ago.

Melody Casson revealed she has been plagued with guilt for over a half a century following the death of her 18-day-old son, Wayne.

Commenting on Wayne's death at the time, 15-year-old Melody asserted she had accidently rolled over the child in her sleep - an explanation which police did not question.

However, it has now been established that the teenage mother had suffocated her son with a pillow in a vain attempt to stifle his cries.

Opening up about the tragic turn of events, the now 67-year-old Melody said: "When I was 15 I had a baby, and he cried and he cried and cried and cried incessantly. I put a cushion over his face and smothered him and killed him."
 


Lamenting the choice she made as a school girl, Melody reiterated: "I said it was an accident but it wasn’t. I killed him."

Commenting on Melody's case, High Court Judge Mrs. Justice Thirwall said: "This is a highly unusual case and may well be unique."

Taking the various factors of the case into account, the judge ruled that the defendant had not intended to kill her child and said: "You were 15, you were a schoolgirl, you were a child and you’ve lived your youth and all your adult life in the shadow of these offences."

It is understood Melody's other son, Darren, lost his life at just 18-years-old following a car crash in 1983.

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