Baby killer Ineta Dzinguviene extradited over Lithuania death

BBC.co.uk

Sptember 26, 2012

A woman jailed for murdering her newborn son in Scotland has been extradited to face allegations that she killed her baby daughter to Lithuania.

Ineta Dzinguviene killed the baby boy using plastic food wrapping on the day he was born in Fraserburgh.

The baby, later named Paulius Dzingus, was found in a bag in April 2010.

The BBC Scotland news website has learned Dzinguviene was extradited earlier this month.

Extradition had previously been contested on the basis that she has a mental illness for which she could not get adequate treatment in Lithuania.

However, Edinburgh Sheriff Court then heard last month that assurances had been received that she could receive treatment, and the process to hand her over began.

The 26-year-old was jailed for a minimum of 15 years at the High Court in Glasgow last June.

Passing sentence, judge John Beckett QC told Dzinguviene she would serve at least 15 years for the "wicked" murder of a "defenceless and extremely vulnerable" child.

She had been found guilty following a trial at the High Court in Livingston.

BBC Scotland later revealed that the Lithuanian authorities had sent a European arrest warrant to Scotland in connection with the death of a baby girl in Lithuania.

'Wicked' mother, 26, suffocated her baby son with clingfilm within hours of his birth

By Grant McCabe - DailyMail.co.uk

June 10, 2011

A mother who murdered her newborn son by smothering him with clingfilm was jailed for life today.

Ineta Dzinguviene, 26, killed Paulius by placing the plastic wrap over his nose and mouth then put a carrier bag on his head and hid his body in a holdall.

She had managed to hide her pregnancy from new friends in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, after moving from Lithuania.

Today she returned to the dock after being convicted of murder after a harrowing trial last month.

Her QC claimed Dzinguviene 'still could not explain' what happened to her son.

Judge John Beckett QC sentenced Dzinguviene, who is wanted in her homeland for a similar killing, to life behind bars. Prosecutors in the Baltic state want to question her over the death of a newborn girl two years ago.

The mother wept as the judge told her there was 'no justification for such a dreadful crime'.

He added: 'This was an innocent child - your own baby who was no more than a few hours old.

'He was wholly defenceless and extremely vulnerable. He should have been protected and nurtured by you and instead you killed him.'

A jury last month heard how the killer’s husband Arunas Dzingus claimed not to know his wife was expecting. He instead believed she was just overweight.

Dzinguviene gave birth to her son at Fraserburgh Hospital on April 12 last year. He weighed 6lb 9oz.

However, the mother, who already had three children, quickly took him home and murdered the boy within hours.

She placed the body in a holdall which was dumped behind a roll of carpet in the close of the flats where she lived.

Police found the corpse after being alerted by Dzinguviene’s sister-in-law and a friend, who knew she had been pregnant and feared she had harmed the child.

The killer fled soon after but officers found her 17 miles away in Peterhead.

The court heard that, despite what she had done, she appeared 'happy and relaxed' when they discovered her.

Frances McMenamin, defending, today said what made the murder 'difficult to understand' was that Dzinguviene was 'devoted' to her three other children.

The QC added: 'She accepts in the light of the evidence that the jury’s verdict was inevitable.

'However, she still cannot understand, far less explain, what happened. There is nothing in her personal life that she wishes to use as any kind of excuse.

'She knows that she faces many years in prison. The greatest punishment for her is the prolonged separation and the high risk of complete alienation from her children.'

Judge Beckett told Dzinguviene, who will serve at least 15 years behind bars, there was nothing to suggest there was anything that 'affected responsibility' for her actions.

He added: 'You took your baby home and concealed his birth from your family. You then deliberately ended his life - for reasons that you have still not explained.

'Even if there were some difficulties in your relationship with your husband and his family, not least because of the long hours he worked, he and his family were offering you practical support with your three children.

'Your husband told the jury he did not object to having another child and he would have welcomed another addition to the family. You could have asked your family to look after baby Paulius or you could have sought to have him adopted.

'There is no justification at all for the dreadful crime you committed.

'The judge said he accepted being in a foreign jail would be difficult for her, but that it was brought about by her "own wicked actions".'

Prosecutors in Lithuania want to question Dzinguviene over the death of a newborn girl in 2009.

Reports in the country claim she gave birth to a baby girl in that year only for the child to vanish after she took her home.

It is alleged after the family left for Scotland, workmen found a dark blue suitcase in the attic of their old home and threw it in a skip.

The case was said to have been discovered by a woman, who found the baby’s body inside.

'Wicked' mother gets life for smothering newborn in clingfilm

Scotsman.com

June 9, 2011

A "wicked" mother who smothered amd killed her newborn baby was jailed for life yesterday.

Fraserburgh 'murder' baby 'died of suffocation

BBC.co.uk

May 5, 2011

A newborn baby whose corpse was found in a holdall in Fraserburgh died of suffocation, a murder trial has heard.

Ineta Dzinguviene, 26, a Lithuanian national, denies asphyxiating her son with clear plastic food wrapping on the day he was born.

Forensic pathologist Dr James Grieve told the High Court in Livingston his opinion was the cause of death was "asphyxia".

He added: "A child less than a day old cannot fight back."

Ms Dzinguviene is alleged to have murdered the baby, later named Paulius Dzingus, in the Aberdeenshire fishing port's High Street on 12 April last year.

Dr Grieve carried out a post mortem on Paulius two days after the alleged murder.

He told the jury that he found there was nothing "abnormal" about the baby during tests.

Dr Grieve said: "As a result of our post mortem we are of the opinion the baby died of asphyxia".

He then identified in court, cling film which he found in the holdall where the baby was found.

'Hold it there'

Advocate depute Dorothy Bain QC, prosecuting, asked: "If you were to put a piece of that over a baby's nose or mouth for a period of time would it prove difficult to breath?"

Dr Grieve replied: "Yes. Absolutely. It's very difficult to get off and we cannot breath through this sort of material. With this over someone's mouth for a period of time there is going to be asphyxia or smothering."

He read further from the report and said there was "nothing in the history of the baby's delivery which would suggest he would not survive".

Ms Bain asked: "If you were to hold cling film over a baby's nose or mouth how quickly would it suffocate?"

Dr Grieve said: "If you hold it there for two to three minutes it would almost certainly suffocate."

Ms Bain then asked: "Would you require some force holding it on an infant?"

Dr Grieve replied: "No. All you have to do is hold it there. The nature of these substances is they hold them self there, almost. You don't require much force.

"A child less than a day old cannot fight back. You just have to put the substance there."

'Seemed cheerful'

The court also heard from Grampian Police Sgt Steven McEwan who found Ms Dzinguviene the day after the alleged murder.

He said he found her sitting on a bench in Peterhead, after being told she might be in the area.

He said: "She seemed cheerful and was smiling. She didn't seemed distressed in anyway."

She agreed to go to Aberdeen Maternity Hospital to be assessed.

Pc Lesley Carmichael, who went with her, said Ms Dzinguviene was asked by a hospital midwife if she had given birth to a baby.

Ms Dzinguviene replied that her husband had said she was a bad mother and that she'd killed her baby - but she insisted she had not given birth.

Pc Carmichael said she became "weepy" and began crying.

Local doctor Peter Duffus assessed Ms Dzinguviene's mental and physical state the next day and also said she was "weepy".

In his final report he wrote: "It was my opinion that she was fit to be detained overnight and was fit to attend court the next day. She would require psychiatric assessment in due course."

Murder trial jury shown picture of dead baby

BBC.co.uk

April 28, 2011

A jury has been shown a picture of a dead baby boy who was found with a plastic bag over his head next to a cardboard box by a policeman.

The picture was shown at the trial of Ineta Dzinguviene, 26, who is alleged to have asphyxiated her newborn son with clear plastic food wrapping.

The image was displayed on TV screens at the High Court in Livingston.

Ms Dzinguviene denies murder and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Grampian Pc Graeme Smith, 32, said he found the body of a baby boy in a common hallway on Fraserburgh High Street on 12 April 2010, as he was trying to contact Ms Dzinguviene after police received reports about a baby.

He said on entering the block of flats he rang the door where Ms Dzinguviene stayed but only three young children were inside.

Dorothy Bain QC, prosecuting, asked: "Were you trying to establish if there was a baby on the premises?"

He replied: "Yes."

Cardboard box

He said he looked around the flat and could see no sign of the baby, and planned to go and check the bins outside the flat, but first looked in an alcove on the stairs.

He said: "There was a cardboard box and a bin bag on top with clothes inside.

"On top of the bag was a blue canvas bag. I lifted it up and placed it on the cardboard box.

"It was pretty heavy. There was another blanket covering it, and I contacted a detective constable to let them know the blanket was from the maternity hospital.

"I opened it and within another plastic bag I saw the skin of a baby. I saw the chest area. There was a plastic bag over the baby's head. It was a disposable bag rolled up. It looked like a Tesco bag."

He said the baby was wearing a hat with ties under the chin. He said he then called an ambulance.

Life 'extinct'

Ms Bain said: "I understand that following an examination the life of the baby was declared extinct."

Pc Smith replied: "Yes. Life was pronounced extinct so the ambulance left and it was pronounced a crime scene."

He said scene of crime officers came to take pictures of the house, as well as to take videos.

Ms Bain then told the jury she would show a video, which would show the crime scene and the baby.

Judge John Beckett QC told the jury: "I'd just like to warn you to be prepared as it's a baby you're going to see."

Earlier, a 10-year-old girl - who cannot be named for legal reasons - told the jury she was ordered to leave a room after seeing Ms Dzinguviene "wrapping something up" under a bed on the day of the alleged murder.

The primary six pupil, who gave evidence over a CCTV link, said: "She was wrapping something. It was transparent like clingfilm. She was kneeling on the floor next to the bed.

"When she saw me she held the clingfilm as if she was trying to hide it. This was all I saw and she told me to leave.

"She was cross. She said not to tell anyone that I knew she had gone to the hospital."

The girl said the next day she overheard a discussion between Ms Dzinguviene and a relative, where the accused was asked: "Where's the baby?"

The girl said she told her relative: "I don't have a baby."

Fraserburgh baby death: Mother denies murder

BBC.co.uk

April 26, 2011

A woman has gone on trial accused of murdering her baby son on the day he was born, by suffocating him.

Ineta Dzinguviene, 26, denies asphyxiating the newborn - later named Paulius Dzingus - by using clear plastic food wrapping.

She is also accused of hiding the corpse in a bag in a bid to evade justice after the child's death in Fraserburgh in April 2010.

Ms Dzinguviene went on trial at the High Court in Livingston.

She is alleged to have murdered the baby in the Aberdeenshire fishing port's High Street on 12 April last year.

The accused is Lithuanian and is being assisted by a translator.

Neighbour Barry MacAtasney told the court Ms Dzinguviene lived in a flat with her husband and three young children.

Mr MacAtasney said that on the day in question the accused had knocked on his door.

He said: "She was rubbing her belly and I couldn't really understand what she was saying as she was speaking in broken English. She looked distressed.

"She seemed pregnant and I thought she was going into labour.

"I went and called an ambulance."

Mr MacAtasney said his girlfriend stayed with Ms Dzinguviene on the landing, until two ambulance workers arrived to help.

He added: "They rushed her into the flat. I thought I'd done my part from there. I didn't speak to her again that day."

'Very little'

Mr MacAtasney said he helped to look after Ms Dzinguviene's children, as there was nobody to look after them when she was taken to hospital.

He told the jury he later got a phone call from the hospital asking him if he would come and collect Ms Dzinguviene and her baby.

Mr MacAtasney said: "She had a child wrapped in a blanket, and thanked me for taking her home. She didn't show me the baby, but I could see it.

"I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl but I could see it moving. It was very little."

Mr MacAtansey's girlfriend, Hannah Paterson, 23, said she was at the window with two of Ms Dzinguviene's young children when she saw Ms Dzinguviene return.

She said: "She was carrying her child in a white blanket. I thought her kids seemed excited about their mum returning.

"I was speaking to her older daughter and she said she wanted a new sister."

Ms Paterson said she thought it was "odd" when Ms Dzinguviene walked straight past her when she came into the flat and did not speak to her, or show her the baby when she came in.

She added: "Personally, if that was me I would be showing the baby off, not hiding away."

Dorothy Bain QC, prosecuting, asked: "Did you see her show the baby to the children?"

Ms Paterson replied: "No. She said thank you for helping out but tried to 'shoo' us out the house. We were standing in the hallway and it was as if she was moving us towards the front door.

"We got the sense she didn't want us to be there any longer as she didn't show us the baby."

HMA V INETA DZINGUVIENE

At the High Court in Glasgow Judge Beckett sentenced Ineta Dzinguviene to life imprisonment after she was found guilty of murdering her son on the 12 April 2010 in Fraserburgh. The punishment part of the sentence was fixed at 15 years.

On sentencing Judge Becket made the following statement in court:

“Ineta Dzinguviene,  you have been found guilty of murder and the punishment is fixed by law. You will be sentenced to life imprisonment. I am obliged to fix a period of time which you must serve in custody before being considered for parole.

In fixing this period, known as a punishment part, I must reflect the need to punish you for the crime of murder and to deter you and others from committing murder. In fixing the punishment part of your sentence the law requires me to ignore the risk that you may pose to the public in the future.

In fixing this period I am obliged to take account of the seriousness of the crime of which you have been convicted.

Your victim was an innocent child, your own baby, who was no more than a few hours old when you ended his life by smothering him with clingfilm. As a newborn baby he was wholly defenceless and extremely vulnerable.  He should have been protected and nurtured by you. Instead, you killed him and the jury determined, correctly, that this was murder.

You did this while  your young daughter was listening outside the bedroom door, puzzled by the sound of a baby crying. You abandoned your baby’s body in a holdall which you secreted amongst unwanted rubbish.

You have not sought to put forward your family circumstances as mitigation, but I have taken account of what is contained in the social work report, in so far as it was not in clear conflict with the evidence in the trial. 

Whilst you had not been long in this country you were not unsupported. Even if there were some difficulties in your relationship with your husband and his family, not least because of the long hours that he worked, he and his family were offering you practical support with your three children. Your husband told the jury that he did not object to having another child and that he would have welcomed an addition to your family. You could have asked your family to look after baby  Paulius or you could have sought to have him adopted. There is no justification at all for the dreadful crime which you committed. You gave birth and allowed your baby to feed from your breast.  You took him home, concealing his birth from your family. You then deliberately ended his life,  for reasons which you have still not explained.

Both the Crown and your own lawyers have investigated the possibility that you suffered from a mental disorder which might cast light on why you committed this crime. Those investigations included the seeking of advice from a peri-natal psychiatrist,  but there is no information to suggest that there was anything which affects your responsibility for your actions.

It is difficult to find mitigation in these circumstances. I do however take account of everything said on your behalf by Miss McMenamin. I note that you have no previous convictions. I accept from the evidence that I heard in the trial that you had been a good mother to your three children. It is to your credit that you brought up your eldest daughter from such a young age.

I recognise the impact that the commission of this crime, and your punishment for it, will have on you and your children.  I recognise that being sentenced to imprisonment in a country far from your homeland, and your sisters, will be particularly difficult for you.  However, you have brought these consequences about through your own wicked actions.

In these circumstances,  the punishment part will be one of fifteen  years. That will be backdated to 15 April 2010.

This does not mean that this is a sentence of fifteen  years. You are sentenced to life imprisonment and you will serve at least fifteen years before you can be considered for release on parole. It will be for the Parole Board to determine when you will ultimately be released and regard will be had to the safety of the public in reaching that decision.

You also become subject to automatic listing in terms of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007.

Scotland-Judiciary.org

Ineta Dzinguviene, 25.

Police forensics officers arrive at the flats in Fraserburgh where the child's body
was on April 12, 2010.