A newborn baby girl was stabbed to death 15 times before her body was placed in a bag and dumped in an outhouse, a court has heard. The infant, named only as Baby S because she had not been given a name, was discovered dead on top of a washing machine at a property in the Page Hall area of Sheffield.
Mother charged with murder
The baby's mother, Andrea Skopova, 20, and her boyfriend, Peter Horvath, 19, are jointly charged with murder, although Horvath is not the father of the child, whose identity remains unknown. Horvath's parents, Peter Horvath, 38, and Nina Horvathova, 37, are also charged with murder, causing or allowing the death of a child and perverting the course of justice by concealing the killing.
Police were alerted at 5.58am after Skopova attended a hospital in Sheffield, claiming she was 37 weeks pregnant and had started heavily bleeding. When examined, medics found no baby and alerted police, who made the grim discovery at the property.
Court appearance
All four defendants, Slovakian nationals who had lived in Sheffield for several years, appeared at Sheffield Magistrates' Court wearing identical grey t-shirts and flanked by four security guards. The court heard that Baby S suffered 33 injuries in total, including 15 separate stab wounds, and was wrapped in a towel and placed in a blue bag in an outbuilding at an address in Holywell Heights.
A 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named, appeared separately, charged with perverting the course of justice. She wept in the dock as District Judge Tim Spruce remanded her into youth custody until Thursday, when she will appear at Sheffield Crown Court alongside the other defendants.
Remanded into custody
Luke Hopkinson, prosecuting, confirmed that Skopova is the baby's mother and that the father is unknown. Two women, aged 26 and 37, arrested on suspicion of murder, remain on bail. All four adult defendants were remanded into custody to attend Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday.
