Hannah Cobley baby murder trial: Accused 'did not know she was pregnant'

A woman accused of leaving her newborn daughter to die said she did not know she was pregnant before she gave birth, a court heard.

Hannah Cobley, 29, gave birth in an outside toilet before wrapping the baby in plastic bags and leaving her in an overgrown area, Leicester Crown Court was told.

In a police interview while she was in hospital, she said she "didn't know what was going on".

Ms Cobley denies murder.

In the video interview, shown to jurors, Ms Cobley said she had last had sex in October and had experienced regular periods since.

The trial had previously heard she gave birth to the girl on 26 April 2017 at a farm where she lived with her parents in Stoney Stanton, Leicestershire.

In her police interview on 30 April 2017, Ms Cobley described how the baby was stillborn.

She said a few days later, when on holiday in Skegness, she began bleeding heavily.

She later collapsed and was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Asked why she didn't tell her mother what had happened, she said: "I thought she'd be ashamed of me."

Ms Cobley's father Peter, who owns a transport business and kept livestock on the farm, said a day after the birth he found drops of blood in the outside toilet but thought someone had suffered a nosebleed.

In a police interview, he said when he asked his daughter what had happened, she told him "there was a baby" and she "put it in a bag".

He said she told him it "wasn't alive or anything", and that he did his "fatherly bit" by consoling her.

Her mother Lisa Cobley told the court she spoke to her daughter alone soon after she had been taken to hospital, but found her "in so much pain" and "so scared".

"She didn't want to tell me anything," she said.

The trial continues.

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