PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian student who placed her newborn baby inside a cereal box before hiding it in a suitcase has been convicted of murder.
According to The Guardian, Jia Xin Teo, 22, was found guilty of murdering the baby.
Teo who came to the UK earlier this year to study had concealed her pregnancy and gave birth to a full-term baby on her bathroom floor on March 4. She then placed the baby, who was alive, in a cereal box that was then put inside a sealable plastic bag and placed into a suitcase.
Teo reportedly told the police that her baby had survived “at least a few minutes” and was still moving when she placed her inside the cereal box.
After giving birth, her condition had deteriorated and she went to the hospital where she was questioned by the hospital staff.
The 22-year-old denied to having given birth, but, the pregnancy test came back positive, and the police were called in.
The infant was only discovered two days later in a suitcase in her bedroom when the she admitted to doing so, adding that she was scared of her family and friends in Malaysia finding out.
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Teo claimed she had been hearing voices instructing her to dispose of the baby, however, a jury at Warwick Crown Court rejected her defence.
“Baby Teo was alive after birth and could have survived, but Jia Xin Teo made the decision to place her inside a cereal box knowing that it would kill her.
“She lied to friends who cared about her, to doctors at the hospital and to the police so that no one found her baby. She did not tell the police where she hid her baby until two days had passed by which time the baby would certainly be dead,” James Leslie Francis, from the Crown Prosecution Service was quoted as saying.
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