A mum has been given a suspended prison sentence after concealing the births of her two stillborn babies and hiding their bodies.
Egle Žilinskaitė delivered two full-term babies ‘alone and without medical support’ at home in 2019 and 2021, but had constantly denied being pregnant to health workers and others.
The mum-of-five concealed the pregnancies due to a ‘fundamental distrust of authorities, both in the UK and based on her experiences in Lithuania’ where she was born.
Police were searching her home in Wildmill, near Bridgend in Wales, as part of an alleged fraud investigation in November 2022 when they noticed a ‘foul smell’.
When they investigated further, they found the severely decomposed of two babies wrapped in blankets and bin bags, one in the attic and one in the airing cupboard.
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Both baby boys appeared to be full term, and were the biological children of Žilinskaitė and her then partner Žilvinas Ledovskis, who lived with her.
While no cause of death could be determined for certain due to the severe decomposition of the remains, a pathologist found it was ‘not unreasonable’ to conclude both babies had died around the time of birth.
Žilinskaitė pleaded guilty to two counts of concealing the birth of a baby, and two counts of preventing a lawful burial.
The first baby, referred to as Baby A in court, was stillborn in around August 2019 at a different address. When Žilinskaitė moved to her current home in Bridgend in June 2021 she took his remains with her.
Žilinskaitė was six months pregnant when she moved house, and Baby B was stillborn in September 2021 there.
Her former partner Mr Ledovskis, now 50, pleaded not guilty to the same charges.
He was found not guilty on all counts in May this year after the prosecution said it would be presenting no evidence against him.
Matthew Roberts, defending, told Cardiff crown court on Thursday that Žilinskaitė was suffering from depression at the time of the births, and said her partner was an alcoholic and emotionally abusive towards her, the BBC reports.
He said she had given birth to both babies when she was home alone and ‘panicked’ – but she now has some closure after the babies were finally buried properly in May.
Žilinskaitė was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.
She was also required to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
During sentencing, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told Žilinskaitė: ‘You made a deliberate decision not to seek any form of assistance or support from the authorities and not to notify them of the pregnancies and births because you are aware that the authorities could and would remove your children if necessary.
‘I bear in mind that, while you have committed serious offences, the deaths of your children were not your fault and you have suffered the loss of two
children at birth.’
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