Tragic baby mum to see psychiatrist

May 1 2007

THE mother of tragic 'baby Lily' is to be examined by a psychiatrist before being sentenced for dumping the lifeless newborn's body in a river.

Rachel Davies, 26, of Wharrage Road, Alcester, had pleaded guilty at Stratford magistrates court in March to concealing the dead baby's birth.

Magistrates committed Davies, who works at the Leamington branch of Mothercare, to Warwick Crown Court to be sentenced because they did not consider their own powers were sufficient.

They also ordered that a pre-sentence report should be prepared on Davies, who it was said was not suffering from any psychiatric problems.

She was due to appear at the Crown Court, but the case was taken out of the list when, following the preparation of the pre-sentence report, her lawyers believed she should be examined by a psychiatrist before being sentenced.

It is expected that it will take until mid-June for the psychiatrist to see Davies, who could face a sentence of up to two years imprisonment.

Named 'baby Lily' by the police, the newborn's body was found wrapped in pyjamas in a carrier bag at a weir on the River Alne at Great Alne by a 13-year-old boy in May last year.

That triggered a huge police search for the mother of the tragic baby, who it was said had never been fed and had been found with the umbilical cord still attached.

Davies was linked to baby Lily, who was said to have a fractured skull and collarbone, by DNA and was arrested in December.

She told officers she had not realised she was pregnant, and had given birth standing up in the kitchen of her home where she lives with her parents.