A 27 year old mother, Orsolya-Anamaria Balogh, who tried to kill her newborn son has walked free from court despite admitting to trying to kill the baby by abandoning him in a hospital toilet cubicle trash bin.
Balogh who hid her pregnancy from family and friends, gave birth to her son at a toilet cubicle at Wigan Infirmary shortly after 8.30pm on July 5, 2016, put him in a black nylon bag, pushed tissues into his mouth and dumped him in a trash bin.
Balogh, of no fixed address, had pleaded guilty to attempted infanticide at an earlier hearing on October 16 last year. The court heard the “disturbed” mum had gone to Wigan Infirmary at 7.30pm complaining of nausea but denied suggestions from staff that she could be pregnant. She left the hospital at around 10.30pm after spending two hours in the toilet cubicle – where she had given birth, cut the umbilical cord and placed the baby in a black bag inside a trash bin
Fortunately for the newborn baby, he was discovered shortly after in a very bad state by a hospital cleaner after being deprived of oxygen. Following the discovery, Balogh was arrested by police but she denied ever being pregnant or giving birth to any baby.
However, the court heard this claim was dismissed after she was examined by a midwife before a scan confirmed that she had recently delivered a child. Experts insist that she was suffering a dissociative episode at the time that caused her to go into denial about her pregnancy.
The baby, who was taken into care following the incident, is now 7 months old and Balogh has been able to undertake two supervised visits with the child.
So because Balogh has spent the equivalent of a 12-month prison sentence at Styal Prison in Cheshire, she avoided jail at Liverpool Crown Court Monday after Judge Neil Flewitt QC handed her a 12-month community order.
The judge told the mum had already served a sentence that was ‘greater than she would have received’ for the offence while in custody. Her attorney, Steven Swift said:
“The defendant was in a disassociated state at the time of the birth and she has come a long way from the state she found herself in at the time. “She has fully co-operated with the hospital’s mental health staff.”
Judge Flewitt sentenced Balogh to a 12-month community order requiring her to reside at an address in Leeds for three months as well as undergoing a 10-day rehab requirement. Judge Flewitt said:
“You are a lady of previous good character who has been educated to a relatively high degree.
“There is no doubt that your culpability was significantly reduced but not extinguished as your balance of mind was disturbed by giving birth.
“Furthermore, the harm that you caused in this case was minimal, though the intended harm to kill your child was great. “In this case, happily your baby survived and is doing well.
“Further to this, I shouldn’t wish to take a course of action that will stand in the way or hinder your ability to establish or maintain a relationship with your child.
“If I was to prevent contact in this nature then I would be depriving your son after he started life on such dramatic fashion. “I am going to impose a community order upon you.
“In this case, anyone may think that you are not being punished for the offence but I would like to make it clear that the time you spent in custody was probably a greater punishment than you would have received for attempted infanticide anyway.”
