The body of a new-born baby was found by a member of the public in an Alicante refuse container on Monday afternoon in the neighbourhood of Pla. Still with its umbilical cord attached it was found at the bottom of the dustbin under bags of rubbish.
The body was removed and taken to the Department of Forensic Science where an autopsy was carried out. It is understood that the results show that the child was born alive and therefore the authorities have ruled out that he was born dead or was the result of an abortion. The boy’s body had air in his lungs, which shows that he was alive when he was born.
Sources close to the investigation confirmed that there were no signs of violence so police are now believed to be investigating whether he was still alive when thrown inside the container
They are also trying to trace the mother of the baby, so far to no avail, although hospitals and health centres have been contacted requesting information of all recent births particularly any where the mother had suffered any bleeding.
This is not the first time that such events have occurred in Alicante. In December 2014, the Court sentenced a young woman to twelve years in jail for throwing her baby into a garden after giving birth alone at home. On that occasion Firefighters were able to rescue the baby alive.
In 2017, another 18-year-old girl was sentenced to 15 years in prison for stabbing her baby after giving birth and hiding the pregnancy from her family.
