Teen avoids jail after causing her baby's death

A woman who admitted causing the death of her newborn baby when she was 15 years old has been spared jail.

Police were called to Sinead Tippett's home in Morecambe on 1 February 2022, after the she told her school she had given birth the previous night, Lancashire Police said.

Tippett, who had denied being pregnant, claimed the baby - named Cameron - was not breathing when he was born, so she wrapped him in towels and put him in a shoebox in her wardrobe before going to school, but postmortem tests showed the baby had been born alive.

The 19-year-old had pleaded guilty to infanticide and was given a three-year community order and a 20-day rehabilitation order at Preston Crown Court on Monday.

Tippett had admitted causing the death of a child under 12 months by a wilful act at a time when the balance of her mind was disturbed by reason of not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child on 24 October.

She had continued to deny the pregnancy to school staff, friends, her boyfriend – the father of the child - and her parents before she gave birth, police said.

A postmortem examination showed the baby boy had been born alive and gave the cause of death as suffocation.

In a statement Cameron's father said: "Losing Cameron has not only had a negative impact on myself, but my family as well.

"My mum, dad, sister, nana and younger cousins are significantly impacted, and we all carry the loss of Cameron daily.

"The loss of Cameron doesn't get easier and there is still a huge hole in my heart that will never be filled."

Det Insp Tris Hardwick said it was an "absolutely tragic case" and "the impact on all those involved has been immeasurable".

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