Woman admits killing baby with cling film after wrongful murder conviction
A woman has admitted to killing her newborn baby with cling film after she was wrongfully convicted of his murder.
Ineta Dzinguviene, 38, pleaded guilty to one charge of culpable homicide of her hours-old baby, Paulius Dzingus, after multiple psychiatrists found her to be of diminished responsibility at the time of the child’s death due to her mental state.
She had previously been found guilty of murdering the baby in 2011 but the conviction was overturned on appeal after she applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) in 2020.
Evidence showed Dzinguviene (pictured) had “diminished responsibility” as a result of her mental state at the time of the crimes and the SCCRC agreed a miscarriage of justice “may have taken place”.
Dzinguviene was also convicted of the same crime against her daughter, Paulina, whom she smoothered with a plastic bag, in her native Lithuania in 2009.
After she was tried for the murder of baby Paulius in 2010, she was extradited to Lithuania to face trial for murdering Paulina where she pleaded guilty in 2012.
Following this, she was returned to Scotland in order to serve her sentence for killing Paulius.
Dzinguviene was seven months pregnant with Paulius in February 2010 when she arrived in Scotland to join her husband, who had taken up work as a lorry driver.
But the High Court in Edinburgh heard from a narrative, read by prosecutor Alex Prentice KC, that Dzinguviene attempted to conceal the pregnancy and had “emphatically denied” she was pregnant.
Paulius was born two months later in April 2010 and nobody outside of the hospital had seen the baby alive.
The baby was killed that same month.
He was found wrapped in a Tesco carrier bag in a suitcase behind a roll of carpet in a communal cupboard of the block of flats Dzinguviene lived in with her family in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.
She was found guilty of murdering Paulius in 2011 and was sentenced to serve at least 15 years in prison.
Dzinguviene had previously killed another baby, Paulina, in Lithuania, in 2009.
She was extradited to Lithuania in 2012 after tradesmen found the remains of baby Paulina in an attic of the home where she lived.
Her case was sent back to the High Court after significant new evidence about her mental state when she committed the crimes in 2009 and 2010 was uncovered by psychiatrists.
While serving her sentence at HMP Cornton Vale, Dzinguviene was assessed by several mental health professionals who subsequently found she had both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) resulting from an abusive childhood and marriage.
Psychiatrists assessing Dzinguviene found she could have dissociative episodes as a result of the PTSD and CPTSD as well as being “in denial” about her pregnancies.
Dzinguviene told professionals of her “deprived” childhood, which was often abusive.
Her marriage was also abusive and she was subjected to emotional, mental and sexual abuse by her husband, the court heard.
The court was also told that Dzinguviene was raped by her mother’s boyfriend in 2003, resulting in a pregnancy.
Psychiatrists believe this is where her PTSD and CPTSD originated from, and she compartmentalised this in order to cope with day-to-day life.
Dzinguviene concealed her pregnancies and ultimately killed two of her five children because she did not want them to experience the same life that she had, the court heard.
Delayed disclosures are “understandable” as an avoidance technique to avoid reliving traumatic events, Mr Prentice told the court.
The prosecutor told judge Lady Poole that some amount of “discount” to the sentence would be appropriate.
In summing up, Lady Poole said: “You killed your baby boy. I accept you had diminished responsibility, but nevertheless, this is a very serious and tragic crime.”
Lady Poole deferred sentencing to June 20 following court social work reports being obtained.
Dzinguviene was remanded in custody.
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