No criminal action against mother who abandoned newborn in Buġibba

No criminal action will be taken against a mother who abandoned her newborn son in Buġibba last September, with a magistrate ruling she had done so in the best interest of the child.

The mother had told no one that she was pregnant, including her partner. Experts appointed by Magistrate Joe Mifsud believe that the woman abandoned her child for it to have a better future.

Is she had been convicted of abandoning her baby, the woman would have faced a term in prison of between seven months and a year.

The boy, who Magistrate Mifsud named Cristiano, after Juventus football star Cristiano Ronaldo, is living with the Ursuline crèche in Sliema, along with his one-year-old brother.

Cristiano was abandoned on the porch of a block of apartments in Pioneer Road on 7 September. The baby was born at home without any medical assistance and the umbilical cord was found freshly cut and tied with a string.

The woman told court experts she had been concealing her pregnancy by saying that she was putting on weight.

Soon after giving birth, she washed the baby, dressed it in a yellow baby-grow, wrapped him in a shirt and placed him in the first safe place she found.

Psychiatric and psychological experts told the court that the woman had not bonded with the baby during her pregnancy.

She also told experts that on the morning of the birth, she had had an argument with her partner who punched her in the eye. Magistrate Mifsud ordered the police to investigate the partner over this incident and take any criminal action deemed fit.

The court has ordered the ban on the publication of the woman’s name as well as the names of any other relatives.