French woman jailed for keeping baby in car trunk

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2019 05:39:15 +0000

Rosa Maria Da Cruz is pictured during her trial, at the Assize Court of Tulle, central France, on November 12, 2018. (AFP)

A French appeals court on Wednesday (Oct 16) sentenced a woman to five years in prison for having kept her baby daughter hidden for nearly two years, mainly in the maggot-infested boot of her car.

The girl, now seven, was permanently traumatized by the ordeal, and today has the mental capacity of a two-to-three-year-old, according to doctors.

Prosecutors say she was kept in a carrycot for two years, usually in the trunk of her mother’s station wagon and sometimes in an abandoned room in the family home in the Correze region of central France.

No one else knew of the baby’s existence.

A mechanic discovered the infant in the filthy boot of Rosa Maria Da Cruz’s car when she took it to be repaired.

Hearing a noise, he opened the trunk to discover the baby naked, filthy and dehydrated. She was surrounded by maggots and excrement.

Da Cruz, originally from Portugal, also has three other children, and her lawyers said she never accepted her fourth pregnancy.

Last November, after a week-long jury trial, a court sentenced Da Cruz to a five-year jail term, but three years were suspended.

She appealed the sentence, but so did prosecutors who sought a sentence of no less than 10 years.

On Wednesday, appeals judges in Limoges said Da Cruz should serve five years in prison and withdrew all parental authority over her daughter, now in foster care.

The girl suffers severe mental impairments, includin
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