Woman charged with killing two newborn children

A 25-year-old woman from southern Zealand has been charged with killing her two newborn children, who died about 15 months apart, DR reports. The allegations are set out in an indictment obtained by news agency Ritzau.

In both cases, the alleged killings took place immediately after birth.

The woman gave birth to her first child at a crisis centre in September 2023. Prosecutors allege that she killed the child immediately through violence and or suffocation before placing it in a freezer.

Prosecutors initially dropped the murder charge in the first case. The woman was instead charged with improper treatment of a body and later received a 30-day suspended sentence. She continues to deny killing the child, her defence lawyer Louise Traberg Smidt said.

In December 2024, around a year and three months later, the woman gave birth to her second child at her home in southern Zealand. According to the indictment, she placed a pillow over the child’s airways and pressed down. The child may also have been subjected to violence to the head, prosecutors allege.

She then placed the newborn in a plastic bag and left it outdoors on a neighbouring property.

After her arrest and appearance at a remand hearing, she admitted killing the second child, but under a less serious legal provision than the standard homicide provision. That provision applies when a mother kills her child during or immediately after childbirth while in distress, fearing disgrace, or under the influence of weakness, confusion or helplessness caused by the birth.

Her lawyer said the woman would continue to deny the more serious charge at trial while admitting the lesser charge in relation to the second child.

The woman was initially held in custody but has since been released. No trial date has been set.

Prosecutors are primarily seeking convictions under the standard homicide provision in both cases. A subsidiary charge under the lesser provision has also been filed.

It is not known what sentence prosecutors will seek. The indictment reserves the possibility of requesting a sanction other than imprisonment, which could include placement in a secure forensic psychiatric unit.