Nurse killed up to ten babies after hiding pregnancies

Published on Thursday 29 July 2010 17:44

A FRENCH nurse has admitted suffocating at least eight of her newborn babies and hiding their bodies in her home.

Dominique Cottrez, 46, who is obese, hid the pregnancies from her husband, Pierre-Marie, beneath her 21-stone frame.

She delivered the children herself before killing them and hiding the bodies over a 17-year period between 1988 and 2005.

The mother of two adult daughters, she told police she had had a bad experience during her first pregnancy and never wanted to see a doctor again, even to purchase contraception.

According to reports in France, she has actually confessed to killing ten babies.

A detective working on the investigation said: "We searched the first premises and the garden following information received from the new owners.

"What is certain is that all the newborn babies found had the same parents.

"Our fear is that there are still more bodies to be discovered."

It is the worst case of infanticide in French history and has shocked the quiet village where Cottrez and her husband were active in the community, well-known and well-liked.

The first two babies were uncovered by new owners of the couple's former home as they dug a swimming pool to the rear of the house.

The tiny corpses were hidden in plastic bags in the garden in Villers-au-Tertre, near Lille. They are believed to have been killed at least 20 years ago.

Prosecutor Eric Vaillant said this led police to the couple's current home, where Cottrez told officers that the bodies of a further six babies were hidden in the garage.

Mr Vaillant said: "She explained that she didn't want any more children and that she didn't want to see a doctor to take contraceptives. She was perfectly conscious of the fact that she was pregnant each time."

The couple appeared in court yesterday. Cottrez has been charged with the killings, but her husband, who was initially accused of concealing the bodies and failing to report the crimes, has been freed,

His wife will now undergo psychiatric tests.

The couple's two daughters, who are in their twenties, have also been questioned.

Police sealed the doors, gate and windows of the houses where the babies were found, and DNA tests have been carried out to establish that the couple are the parents.

Post-mortem examinations were being conducted to try to determine the cause of the babies' deaths.

Detectives, meanwhile, have been using sniffer dogs and sonar equipment to search for more human remains.

France's RTL radio station said: "She has admitted in police interviews that she killed ten of her babies and hid the bodies."

Daniel Collignon, a former mayor of Villers-au-Tertre, said: "I'm still in shock."

Village resident Jean-Henri Martines said: "People are speechless at what has occurred. We all knew this couple. What has happened is unthinkable." No-one knows how to react. We are in shock."

Another local said: "These are attractive, helpful, polite and courteous people. They never did anything to suggest they might be capable of abnormal behaviour. The husband was even elected to the town council."

Echoes of glasgow case

THE murder of eight newborn babies by their French mother carries haunting echoes of the death of infants in Glasgow.

Susan MacLeod, below, pleaded guilty to the culpable homicide of her newborn son and daughter at Glasgow High Court in 2003. She denied killing her other daughter, saying she was stillborn.

MacLeod was alone in the rented flat in Govan, Glasgow, when the children were born between 1996 and 2000.The skeleton of the first-born, a girl, was in a bag in her wardrobe. The remains of the other two babies were in bags on the floor.

A murder charge against Angeli Whitehead, 28, whose newborn girl was found in a bin in the ladies' toilets of a remote Cumbria pub, in 2005, was dropped after a doctor said the symptoms resembling strangulation were also similar to those found in unattended births.