French woman admits killing five newborn babies

A French woman has gone on trial accused of killing five of her newborn babies, after keeping the pregnancies secret from her family and friends.

Ramona Hernandez-Canete, 37, was arrested after one of her teenage children discovered a baby’s body inside a freezer bag in a laundry basket.

Her husband, Juan Carlos Hernandez-Canete, called the police after the body was found. He told investigators he had not known his wife was pregnant on the five occasions between 2005 and 2015, despite the pregnancies reaching full term. Residents of the village where the family lived also said they had not known.

A postmortem examination established that the baby, a boy, had been born alive 48 hours earlier.

On searching the family home at Louchats in the Gironde, 30 miles south of Bordeaux, detectives found the bodies of four more newborn infants in a freezer.

Police arrested both parents, who were put under formal investigation, she for infanticide, he for not reporting a crime. The charges against Juan Carlos Hernandez-Canete were later dropped.

Jérôme Hars, president of the bench, said in his opening statement that Ramona Hernandez-Canete had admitted killing the babies but had “difficulty explaining the deaths”. He asked her to look “deep inside” herself and try to give the court an explanation.

Arnaud Dupin, lawyer for the defence, told the court his client was “a woman incapable with dealing with the result of her pregnancy”.

“She is not in total denial but it’s a kind of rejection in the face of her destiny and her life: she didn’t bring death, she just didn’t want to or couldn’t bring life. That’s the question at the heart of the hearing,” Dupin told reporters outside the court.

He said that Ramona Hernandez-Canete, who told investigators her husband was “possessive and jealous”, had been reduced to “an object obliged to respond to the sexual desires of a man”.

Dupin said his client was far from “the kind of criminal that deserves life imprisonment”.

“There was violence, there was misunderstanding … it’s a heavily emotional trial full of very human moments. It’s complex,” he said.

The defendant has been charged with multiple child murders and could be sentenced to life in prison.

The trial continues.