Student convicted of killing newborn baby

UPDATE: Jia Xin Teo was sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 17 years, on 25 October 2024.

A young mother, who killed her newborn baby by placing her in a cereal box shortly after birth and concealing the box in a suitcase, has been convicted of murder. 

Jia Xin Teo, 22, of Raglan Street, Coventry was convicted today (24 October 2024) at Warwick Crown Court of one count of murder.

Teo, a student from Malaysia who arrived in the United Kingdom earlier this year to study at Coventry University, concealed her pregnancy and gave birth to a full-term baby on 4 March 2024. She placed her in a cereal box, then inside a sealable plastic bag and then into a suitcase.

By the time police discovered her little body two days later, the baby was dead.

Teo denied murdering her baby and said she had been hearing voices which told her to kill the baby, however the jury rejected that defence and found her guilty of murder. She was sentenced on 25 October 2024 to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 17 years.

James Leslie Francis, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Jia Xin Teo hid her pregnancy from everyone she knew and arrived in the UK knowing that she was likely to give birth here.

“She had opportunity to seek help but instead chose to carry her pregnancy in secret and give birth alone. After she gave birth, she still did not tell anybody and refused to go to the hospital to get checked. She lied to friends who cared about her, to doctors at the hospital and to the police so that no one found her baby. She did not tell the police where she hid her baby until two days had passed by which time the baby would certainly be dead.

“Baby Teo was alive after birth and could have survived but Jia Xin Teo made the decision to place her inside a cereal box knowing that it would kill her.

“Today, the jury have made the decision to convict her for her actions and I would like to thank the jury for their careful consideration in this complex and sensitive case.”