A teenage mum has admitted making her new-born baby drink bleach, minutes after she secretly gave birth in a bath tub.
The 17-year-old from West Drayton was originally charged with attempted murder but the allegation was dropped after she admitted child cruelty.
The Old Bailey heard on Tuesday (January 12) that the infant was given the bleach within ‘moments or minutes’ of birth.
Medical reports concluded that its mother, who cannot be named due to her age, had suffered an ‘acute stress reaction’ following the birth.
“Within a few seconds of applying the bleach she realised what she had done and tried to wipe it away,” read one of the reports.
It added that the defendant had denied suggestions she had tried to kill the child in order to get rid of it.
She insists that she only gave the child a tiny amount of the poison on August 11 2015.
Prosecutor Ed Brown QC said: “Where the defendant accepts putting, in her words, a drop of bleach in the baby’s mouth the Crown do not accept that element of the offence.
"If the defendant had in fact killed her baby I am satisfied that she would have satisfied the criteria for a charge of infanticide.”
The girl sat outside the dock and spoke only to enter a plea of guilty to the charge of child cruelty.
Judge Rebecca Poulet, QC, said that due to the “very unusual circumstances” surrounding the case it should be delayed until next month so further reports can be prepared by the youth offending team.
She told the defendant: “I need more information about you before I decide what is going to happen. The people who are looking after you are going to spend time talking to you and writing a report to help me decide what is going to happen.”
The girl was bailed to attend Isleworth Crown Court on February 29 to be sentenced.
