>Cleveland Police discovered Ms Donnelly had searched online for terms including “how to kill a baby naturally”, “how to kill a foetus’, “36 weeks pregnant and want nothing to do with the baby” and “can you revive a baby that has been dead for two days?”.
Oh come on. Who hasn’t googled random stuff at two in the morning?
Imagine being a baby murderer but a baby murderer so thick you have to ask google if you can revive someone who’s been dead for TWO DAYS.
That’s in pretty stark contrast to what even the prosecution in the trial came to the conclusion of…
> The defence commissioned medical reports from five expert witnesses and it was agreed Ms Donnelly’s son was likely born in an extremely compromised state as a result of a hypoxic injury, believed to have been caused by a significant placental abruption.
> They agreed that her son, if born alive, was extremely poorly and so unwell that she could have believed the child was stillborn.
> In court on Wednesday, prosecutors accepted there was a lack of evidence Ms Donnelly had harmed her baby and that it was likely Ellis was stillborn after her placenta was damaged.
If people google those phrases it would be a good thing if google automatically made the top responses point to how to get help, how the baby can be put up for adoption and go to a loving home, and emphasise that the lady will be taken care of and treated confidentially if required, e.g. if she wants to keep the pregnancy secret for any reason, such as the pregnancy being a result of rape.
There’s a possibility she had an episode of psychosis at that stage of her pregnancy, or a learning disability/ significantly reduced IQ.
When I had treatment in a psychiatric unit as a teenager, there was a woman that had just had a baby and was having an episode of psychosis and experiencing delusions. It was quite scary the nonsense she came out with – I think she had some sort of religious delusions.
As part of a college course, I’ve done some placements with adults with special educational needs, and superficially it can be hard to tell that higher functioning adults with special educational needs have a significant intellectual disability.
There was a case in 2019 where a teenage mother left her 20-month old baby girl to starve to death, home alone in Brighton, as she partied for six days in London to celebrate her 18th birthday. A lot of people commenting on the case called this young woman evil. To me it seems highly likely that she must have a significant intellectual disability.
The difference between labelling someone as just evil versus intellectually disabled, is that an intellectual disability can be identified at an early stage, ideally during childhood, and measures put in place to support them and prevent tragedies happening. In fact Verphy Kudi and her baby were “known to social services and were living in one of eight flats in a supported housing unit in Brighton run by YMCA DownsLink which has staff on the premises 24 hours a day”. It seems they failed to support Verphy and baby Asiah. Why didn’t they monitor them on a daily basis? What kind of support were they providing if the mother could just abscond to London for six days?
I’m a stay at home mum and the longest I’ve been away from my 20 months old son (other than when I was seriously ill after he was born) was for the three hours it took me today to track down the penicillin he was prescribed for his tonsillitis, whilst my mother took care of him. The idea of someone thinking a baby could be left for six days alone? It’s bloody obvious that someone that stupid must have a very low IQ. She had lots of risk factors. She really should have been screened for a learning disability, and had daily supervision with her baby, maybe in a communal mother and baby home. The baby wasn’t just failed by her mother, she was failed by social services and YMCA DownsLink.
Anyway, googling those horrendous search terms should automatically bring up helpline numbers which a woman can contact to immediately receive help, so the baby can be safely delivered and kept safe.
Constructive solutions to prevent tragedies are what’s needed.
4 comments
>Cleveland Police discovered Ms Donnelly had searched online for terms including “how to kill a baby naturally”, “how to kill a foetus’, “36 weeks pregnant and want nothing to do with the baby” and “can you revive a baby that has been dead for two days?”.
Oh come on. Who hasn’t googled random stuff at two in the morning?
Imagine being a baby murderer but a baby murderer so thick you have to ask google if you can revive someone who’s been dead for TWO DAYS.
That’s in pretty stark contrast to what even the prosecution in the trial came to the conclusion of…
> The defence commissioned medical reports from five expert witnesses and it was agreed Ms Donnelly’s son was likely born in an extremely compromised state as a result of a hypoxic injury, believed to have been caused by a significant placental abruption.
> They agreed that her son, if born alive, was extremely poorly and so unwell that she could have believed the child was stillborn.
> In court on Wednesday, prosecutors accepted there was a lack of evidence Ms Donnelly had harmed her baby and that it was likely Ellis was stillborn after her placenta was damaged.
If people google those phrases it would be a good thing if google automatically made the top responses point to how to get help, how the baby can be put up for adoption and go to a loving home, and emphasise that the lady will be taken care of and treated confidentially if required, e.g. if she wants to keep the pregnancy secret for any reason, such as the pregnancy being a result of rape.
There’s a possibility she had an episode of psychosis at that stage of her pregnancy, or a learning disability/ significantly reduced IQ.
When I had treatment in a psychiatric unit as a teenager, there was a woman that had just had a baby and was having an episode of psychosis and experiencing delusions. It was quite scary the nonsense she came out with – I think she had some sort of religious delusions.
As part of a college course, I’ve done some placements with adults with special educational needs, and superficially it can be hard to tell that higher functioning adults with special educational needs have a significant intellectual disability.
There was a case in 2019 where a teenage mother left her 20-month old baby girl to starve to death, home alone in Brighton, as she partied for six days in London to celebrate her 18th birthday. A lot of people commenting on the case called this young woman evil. To me it seems highly likely that she must have a significant intellectual disability.
The difference between labelling someone as just evil versus intellectually disabled, is that an intellectual disability can be identified at an early stage, ideally during childhood, and measures put in place to support them and prevent tragedies happening. In fact Verphy Kudi and her baby were “known to social services and were living in one of eight flats in a supported housing unit in Brighton run by YMCA DownsLink which has staff on the premises 24 hours a day”. It seems they failed to support Verphy and baby Asiah. Why didn’t they monitor them on a daily basis? What kind of support were they providing if the mother could just abscond to London for six days?
I’m a stay at home mum and the longest I’ve been away from my 20 months old son (other than when I was seriously ill after he was born) was for the three hours it took me today to track down the penicillin he was prescribed for his tonsillitis, whilst my mother took care of him. The idea of someone thinking a baby could be left for six days alone? It’s bloody obvious that someone that stupid must have a very low IQ. She had lots of risk factors. She really should have been screened for a learning disability, and had daily supervision with her baby, maybe in a communal mother and baby home. The baby wasn’t just failed by her mother, she was failed by social services and YMCA DownsLink.
[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11465907/Mother-jailed-baby-died-partied-says-father-not-involved-inquest.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11465907/Mother-jailed-baby-died-partied-says-father-not-involved-inquest.html)
Anyway, googling those horrendous search terms should automatically bring up helpline numbers which a woman can contact to immediately receive help, so the baby can be safely delivered and kept safe.
Constructive solutions to prevent tragedies are what’s needed.