A French mother murdered six of her newborn babies in almost as many years and hid their bodies in a basement, a court was told yesterday.
Celine Lesage, 38, from Valognes, a village in northwestern France, faces life in prison for "aggravated homicide" after choking four babies by placing her finger in their mouths and strangling two others who were "more vivacious" with a cord.
She secretly delivered the infants alone between August 2000 and September 2007, putting "the babies and their dirty clothes neatly in a sealed plastic bag and [hiding] them," said Michel Garrandaux, the Cherbourg prosecutor at the assizes in Coutances.
"Her attitude was wholly ambivalent. On the one hand, she expressed her desire to have children, and then she refused to keep them."
Ms. Lesage, who admitted the charges in court, was described as a "modest and otherwise ordinary housewife" who performed charity work and had a son aged 14.
She had "no idea" why she had killed her children, the prosecutor said.
"I won't do it again," she told the court.
Pascal Catherine, 39, the woman's former boyfriend who fathered the first five of the murdered babies, was in the public gallery. He was originally arrested for not reporting a crime and hiding the bodies, before being cleared after thinking that the babies had been stillborn or aborted.
Ms. Lesage and Mr. Catherine, a plumber, ended their relationship in the spring of 2006 after 15 years living common law as husban and wife. The reason was reportedly money: She had also been concealing her debts, the result of impulsive shopping.
Her murderous secret was uncovered on Oct. 19, 2007, when a new boyfriend, Luc Margueritte, a print worker, discovered the corpses in garbage bags.
Mr. Margueritte, a prosecution witness who had lived with the accused for more than a year, was "led to the basement by the terrible smell of decomposing corpses and found them wrapped up in their bags," said the prosecutor.
His son by Ms. Lesage was the sixth victim.
Ms. Lesage claimed she lived in fear of Mr. Catherine, accusing him of being violent. But the investigation failed to find evidence he had a "domineering attitude."
The woman is accused of first-degree murder and faces a life jail sentence if convicted, with no possibility of parole for 18 years.
She has been held in a prison in Caen since her arrest in 2007.
Her lawyer, Veronique Carre, is claiming diminished responsibility, a lesser crime.
"The facts of the case are not in dispute, but there is medical and psychological evidence to consider," she said.
"My client believes she is responsible, but not guilty."
The trial is expected to last four days.
