Coventry student who hid newborn baby in cereal box convicted of murder

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

A university student who put her newborn baby in a cereal box before hiding it inside a suitcase at her halls of residence has been convicted of murder.

Jia Xin Teo, a 22-year-old from Malaysia who arrived in the UK earlier this year to study at Coventry University, was found guilty of murdering the baby she gave birth to in March.

Teo concealed her pregnancy and gave birth to the baby girl in the en suite of her bedroom, where her flatmate found her bed “covered in blood”, Warwick Crown Court heard.

She refused to come out of the bathroom and when an ambulance was called she declined medical treatment and paramedics left.

But she later went to hospital by taxi when her condition deteriorated, and admitted to killing the child two days later as police discovered the suitcase which her flatmates had helped move.

David Mason KC, prosecuting, said she told police her baby had survived “at least a number of minutes” and was still moving when she placed her into the box and bag.

Teo said she was scared in case her family and friends in Malaysia found out, and it affected her studies. She also claimed to have been hearing voices that told her to dispose of her child.

However, the jury rejected that defence and found her guilty of murder. She will be sentenced on 25 October 2024.

James Leslie Francis, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Jia Xin Teo hid her pregnancy from everyone she knew and arrived in the UK knowing that she was likely to give birth here.

“She had opportunity to seek help but instead chose to carry her pregnancy in secret and give birth alone. After she gave birth, she still did not tell anybody and refused to go to the hospital to get checked.

“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.”