Mother Kept Stillborn Babies In Her Wardrobe
2:01pm Monday September 13, 2010
A woman has admitted concealing the births of four stillborn babies and keeping the remains of three of them in her wardrobe for 20 years.
Bernadette Quirk admitted concealing the births of four stillborn babies
Bernadette Quirk, 55, illegally buried one baby in a cemetery and kept the others wrapped in newspaper and rags in a small plastic bin with an air freshener. She was found out when her daughter Joanne Lee discovered the remains in July 2009 and contacted police. Quirk of St Helens, Merseyside, said she gave birth to the babies between 1985 and 1995 but did not know exact dates as she had become an alcoholic after her marriage ended.
Detective Chief Inspector Neil Bickley, of Merseyside Police, said Quirk led "a chaotic lifestyle" after the failure of her marriage in the late 1980s and "had a number of sexual encounters". Over the past 20 years, Quirk moved home several times and took the remains with her to each new property. She has not explained why.
It was a very difficult investigation and not something I have experience of and made harder by the passage of time and the condition of the babies.
<cite> Detective chief inspector Neil Bickley, Merseyside Police
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All four of the babies were girls and two of the infants stored in the bin were twins, although Quirk said she only remembered three of them. Her daughter knew that one baby had been buried in St Helen's Cemetery in the late 1990s, but had no idea about the other births until she made the discovery at Quirk's Harlow Close home. She asked a friend to call the police and report the incident. When officers searched the property they arrested both Miss Lee and her mother, an ex-care home assistant, and launched a homicide inquiry.
Miss Lee was released without charge and her mother told police that all the babies, born at her old house in Brandreth Close, St Helens, were stillborn. Forensic tests could not prove otherwise. A forensic anthropologist told detectives the infants were born with skeletal abnormalities and foetal growth restriction. All the babies were full term, scientists established, but they could not determine the cause of the stillbirths.
Police struggled with the case due to Quirk's inability to remember details and had to piece together information from people who knew here. Mr Bickley said: "It was a very difficult investigation and not something I have experience of and made harder by the passage of time and the condition of the babies." Quirk admitted to concealing the births at Liverpool Crown Court and is due to be sentenced on October 11.
