Perth mother who hid baby's corpse in garbage bag behind couch avoids jail
Monique Ellen Burton, 35, received a 12-month suspended sentence in the Perth District Court on Friday for interfering with a corpse and 11 counts of fraud.
Burton accepted more than $3000 in donations from a Go Fund Me page set up by a friend who believed she was terminally ill.
In handing down his sentence, Judge Darren Renton told Burton he grappled with the appropriate sentence given the seriousness of her offending and it was by a bare margin that her sentence was suspended.
He said her criminality was interference but it was not sophisticated and somewhat naive, and while he considered it to be serious it was on the lower end.
'Your motive was in part a desire to avoid the consequences of your pregnancy and because of your psychological conditions,' he said.
'You had a sticking your head in the sand approach to deal with stressors and would go into a state of avoidance and denial.'
The court was told Burton had been with her partner Shaun Bradley Balaam for 14 years and the couple had five children together when she became pregnant to another man.
Burton had a history of concealing pregnancies and lost a child who was 15 months old from medical conditions.
When she became pregnant with her sixth child, she gave her partner false pregnancy test results when he became suspicious she was carrying a baby, and told him her bulging stomach was caused by a liver condition.
She gave birth to the baby on a lounge at her Geraldton home she shared with Balaam, about 400km north of Perth, on the evening of August 19, 2022 while he slept.
The court was told after giving birth Burton wrapped the baby in clothing and hid the infant behind a couch in the lounge room.
When Balaam found Burton in the lounge room the next morning she was not well and he took her to hospital where she lied about her medical condition and failed to disclose she had given birth.
She repeatedly denied giving birth when she was hospitalised despite being questioned by medical staff, and was transferred to King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth.
When Balaam returned home he found the bag behind the couch and concluded there might be a baby inside, but rather than alerting authorities he wrapped the bag in another black garbage bag and concealed it under items in a freezer on the back veranda.
When Burton was hospitalised in Perth she repeatedly denied being pregnant or giving birth eventually admitting to a social worker what happened.
Police were alerted and found the baby's body hidden under items in a freezer at her Geraldton home on August 25, 2022.
Burton was interviewed by police in January 2024, telling them she had a fuzzy memory and had blocked it out.
Judge Renton said he could not determine if the baby was born alive or stillborn, but Burton eventually told authorities the baby was stillborn when she admitted to the birth.
The judge said authorities were unable to determine the cause of death because the child had been placed in a freezer by Balaam.
He said there was no evidence the baby was met with a violent death but if Burton had alerted authorities when the baby was stillborn she would not have faced criminal charges.
The judge accepted Burton was remorseful and has been engaging with support services to address her psychological issues that would not be available to her in prison.
He found an immediate jail term would undermine steps she had taken to rehabilitate.
Burton will be required to undergo a supervision order and attend programs.
Her partner Balaam was previously sentenced to a 12 month community based order for a lessor charge of not having a lawful excuse to improperly interfere with a corpse.
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