'Wicked' mother gets life for smothering newborn in clingfilm

Published on Thursday 9 June 2011 15:59

A "wicked" mother who smothered amd killed her newborn baby was jailed for life yesterday.

Ineta Dzinguviene murdered her son Paulius just hours after he was born on 12 April last year, holding a piece of clingfilm over his face until he suffocated.

She then attempted to dispose of his body by stuffing it into a holdall and hiding it amongst piles of rubbish in the a communal stairway in a block of flats in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.

Last night, her mother-in-law said Dzinguviene had drugged the child's father and practised "black magic."

The Lithuanian is wanted for questioning in her native country over the death of her other daughter in 2009.

The infant had suffered a "violent death", a spokesman for the Lithuanian prosecutor general's office said and a European arrest warrant has now been issued for the 26-year-old.

Passing sentence at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, judge John Beckett QC told Dzinguviene she would serve at least 15 years for the "wicked" murder of a "defenceless and extremely vulnerable" child.

She denies having any knowledge of killing her baby, saying her last memory was lying on her bed with the newborn child.Dzinguviene wiped tears from her face as the judge delivered his sentence.

He told her: "Your victim was an innocent child, your own baby, who was no more than a few hours old when you ended his life by smothering him with clingfilm.

"As a newborn baby, he was wholly defenceless and extremely vulnerable. He should have been protected and nurtured by you. Instead, you killed him and the jury determined, correctly, that this was murder."

The judge said that whilst there had been difficulties in her relationship with her husband, he and his family were prepared to offer support for her other children.

He continued: "Your husband told the jury he did not object to having another child and would have welcomed an addition to the family. You could have asked your family to look after baby Paulius or sought to have him adopted.

"There is no justification at all for the dreadful crime you committed. You gave birth and allowed him to feed from your own breast. You took him home, concealing his birth from your family. You then deliberately ended his life.

"You have brought these circumstances about through your own wicked actions."

Yesterday, Vilda Dzinguviene, Palius's grandmother, claimed her daughter-in-law had practised black magic and drugged the child's father.

She said: "I became anxious seeing such a huge number of candles (in their house]. I asked my grandchildren what it was all about.

"They told me their mother lit all the candles, walked around the room and spoke in a strange language like witchcraft. I found some books and magazines on black magic practices."