By Kim Chisnall
A French woman has explained to police how she came to kill eight of her own new born children, and her story convinced them to drop all charges against her husband.
The prison van brought both husband and wife to court, but inside all charges against Pierre-Marie were dropped, as his wife's bizarre story emerged.
Over 22 years Dominique Cottrez suffocated eight of her own babies before wrapping them in black plastic bags. Two of the bodies were discovered in the garden of her former house. The new owners were digging a swimming pool and they discovered tiny bones.
Just down the road in a second house where Cottrez lived with her husband for 15 years, six more bodies were found in the garage.
Police believe nobody, not even the husband, knew about either the pregnancies or the killings.
"He has said that he was absolutely not aware his wife was pregnant," says prosecutor Eric Vallain. "She has a very large body, which may explain why you might not spot that she was pregnant. And he also said that he had no knowledge that his wife was disposing of the newborns."
Cottrez has two grown daughters and is believed to have told police that those pregnancies were so traumatic she didn't want more children, but she was too shy about being overweight to go to a doctor.
"For some women, the whole idea of pregnancy and the changes and the adaptations that are required are simply too overwhelming, and they go into a process of denying reality, perhaps concealing the pregnancy, not just from their spouse or from their family, but sometimes from themselves," says Lucy Beresford, psychotherapist, "and then when the baby actually arrives the process of denying reality has to continue, and that's what often leads to infanticide."
Cottrez has lived in a village in northern France her whole life. Her husband was even a member of the village council.
Now the village is left struggling to understand how someone they knew so well could be capable of such a disturbing crime.
3 News