A woman under investigation for eight infanticide

A woman of 47 years old was indicted and imprisoned Thursday for killing eight of hers children at birth and buried or concealed the body in two successive residences in the village of Villers-au-Tertre (North).

The case could be the worst case of infanticide ever uncovered in France after Celine Lesage, convicted last March of a sextuple homicide, and that of Veronique Courjault, culminating in a triple murder.

“This is an extraordinary case given the large number of newborns found”, said Attorney Douai, Eric Vaillant, at a press conference.

Children have been strangled at birth by their mother, who gave birth alone, between the early 1990s and 2006 or 2007 after the birth of two daughters alive today, according to a statement from the suspect.

Denying any “denial of pregnancy”, she acknowledged being aware of being pregnant and told investigators she did not want more children.

Dominique-Lempereur Cottrez was indicted and imprisoned at Douai to “intentional homicide of children under fifteen years”.

Her husband, Pierre-Marie Cottrez, carpenter, was interviewed as an assisted witness and allowed to remain free, contrary to the submissions of the prosecutor who sought the indictment for “failure to denounce crimes and receiving stolen corpses.”

He seems to have discovered the crime the police. “The sky has fallen on his head,” said Eric Vaillant.

Justice is conducting further investigations to find any other bodies but Dominique Cottrez assured the investigators that there were only eight victims.

EXPERTISE

Psychological and psychiatric expertise will be ordered. The woman is described by her neighbors as a person of strong build, which could explain that she could hide her pregnancy.

“She says her first child was very ill the past due to his strong build, so she did not want to see a doctor for contraception,” said the prosecutor.

Home care aide, Dominique Cottrez is “perfectly socially inserted” by the magistrate. She was described by the villagers as shy and quiet.

“You could’t see her unless she seldom went out, unless she participated in the life of the town but did not notice anything,” he told reporters the village mayor, Patrick Mercier.

Her husband was elected to city council. The case began last weekend when the new owners of the former home of the couple dug a hole in the garden to plant a tree and found two bodies.

Alerted, the police placed in custody the alleged parents, who live a few hundred yards from their former residence.

Dominique Cottrez recognized the two crimes and then mentions four others and led investigators to the bodies, hidden in various places in her new home.

The psychiatric experts have reviewed other cases of infanticide the possibility of a “denial of pregnancy, affecting psychological condition of women refusing to be pregnant and can lead to a homicide at birth”.

This diagnosis has most often been dismissed and the criminal liability of suspicious was chosen.

A 38 year old woman, Celine Lesage has been sentenced in March to 15 years in prison for murdering six of her babies at birth between 2000 and 2007.

In a similar case, Veronique Courjault, which killed at birth, three of hers children between 1999 and 2003 and kept in the freezer two bodies, was convicted in June 2009 to eight years in prison at Tours (Indre-et-Loire). She was released from prison in May in favor of parole.

In both cases, the spouses were not considered because it was established that they were unaware of pregnancy and homicide.

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