Geraldton mum Monique Ellen Burton learns fate after newborn baby she hid in garbage bag found in freezer

7NEWS

2 days ago

A mother who disposed of her newborn's body in a bin bag behind a couch before it was found in a backyard freezer has avoided jail.
Monique Ellen Burton, 35, was handed a suspended prison term for interfering with her baby's corpse by what the judge called a 'bare margin'.
On Friday, District Court Judge Darren Renton called the case 'tragic ... on many levels'.
He agreed with Burton's defence lawyers that the mother took a 'head-in-the-sand approach', and lived in a 'state of denial and avoidance'.
This was not the first pregnancy she had concealed, but her fourth.
Burton, from Geraldton, four hours north of Perth, gave birth to the baby boy in secret in her lounge room in August 2022, while her partner and children slept in other rooms.
She then wrapped the infant in underwear, placed him in a garbage bag and put him behind a couch, before she went to sleep.
She fell ill shortly after giving birth and was taken to hospital where she repeatedly denied the pregnancy, according to doctors.
Burton was later flown to King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth where she eventually confessed to a hospital social worker she had been pregnant.
West Australian Police then searched her home and found the baby's body wrapped in a garbage bag and placed in a chest freezer.
Before police made the grim find, Burton's partner, Shaun Bradley Balaam, had already discovered the bag by chance when looking for a lost mobile phone.
He claims he never opened it, but later told police he suspected it might have been a baby and put the bag in the freezer.
He also told police he 'freaked out'.
Due to the baby's frozen condition it was not possible to determine whether he was born alive, but from the available evidence Renton ruled it seems likely the infant was stillborn.
Burton previously pleaded guilty to interfering with a corpse, and the judge accepted Burton was genuinely remorseful.
A psychologist report found the mother lives with unresolved grief, an adjustment disorder and a history of depressive episodes.
Burton was also sentenced for fraud offences after collecting $3000 from a GoFundMe page set up after she falsely claimed to have a terminal liver condition.
She was handed a 19-month prison term, which was suspended for 12 months.
Burton will be monitored in the community, and has been ordered to attend regular counselling and parenting courses.
She did not provide comment to media outside court on Friday.
Balaam was previously handed a community-based order for improper interference with a corpse.