Rachel Tunstill: Mum who murdered newborn baby with scissors dies in prison

A mother who was twice jailed for life for the murder of her newborn baby has died in prison.

Rachel Tunstill stabbed Mia Kelly to death with a pair of scissors shortly after she was born in January 2017.

Tunstill was first found guilty of murder and jailed for life in June 2017 but the conviction was quashed a year later by the Court of Appeal after judges ruled lesser charges should have been considered.

Tunstill then faced a retrial at Liverpool Crown Court and was again found guilty of murder in February 2019 and sentenced to life with a minimum of 17 years.

On Tuesday, the Prison Service confirmed that Tunstill, who was housed at HMP Styal in Cheshire, had died.

A spokesperson said: “HMP Styal prisoner Rachel Tunstill died in custody on 1 August 2023.

"As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”

The circumstances around the death are currently unknown.

Yahoo News UK has contacted the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for an update.

Who is Rachel Tunstill?

Mental healthcare boss Tunstill stabbed her daughter to death with a pair of scissors in the bathroom of her home in Burnley, Lancashire, and then placed her body in plastic bags before dumping it in the kitchen bin.

Tunstill, a psychology graduate, had high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder.

She had claimed she was unaware her pregnancy was virtually full-term and thought she was having a miscarriage at the flat in Wellington Court she shared with her partner, forklift driver Ryan Kelly, 31.

But her trial heard the baby was almost full-term and she was 37 to 38 weeks pregnant.

In the weeks leading up to the birth Tunstill, a deputy manager at a residential home for people with mental health issues, carried out internet searches for terms including “how to end a pregnancy late”.

She also searched for information on notorious killer Mick Philpott, who murdered six of his own children in a house fire, and the court heard she had said she was interested in how somebody described as a “psychopath” could have cried on television about the deaths before his guilt was revealed.

After her original conviction was quashed, the jury at Tunstill’s second trial was able to consider alternatives of manslaughter, manslaughter with diminished responsibility or infanticide.

The defence said Tunstill’s balance of mind was disturbed in the period following the birth and that she suffered “an acute stress reaction”.

However, Tunstill was once more found guilty of murder and jailed for life for a second time in 2019.