Mother who murdered newborn fighting extradition over second baby death

A mother who murdered her newborn son is facing extradition over charges relating to another baby's death.

Ineta Dzinguviene was jailed for at least 15 years for suffocating the young child with cling film before hiding his body in a bag behind a roll of carpet in a stairwell in Fraserburgh.

Grampian Police officers who investigated the case said the mother, from Lithuania, showed no remorse for what had happened, while the judge branded it a "dreadful crime".

The 26-year-old appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday in connection with the death of a baby girl in Lithuania.

Sheriff Alistair Noble told her: "The Lithuanian authorities are seeking your return so they can put you on trial and what they seek to put you on trial for is the alleged murder of your daughter in April 2009, your daughter having been born at the beginning of April 2009.

"It is said you placed a plastic bag on her head from which she died of asphyxiation. The accusation is that you murdered her."

According to reports in Lithuanian media, it is alleged that in 2009 she went to doctors in her home town of Vilkaviskis and was told she was 28 weeks pregnant.

The medical authorities "lost track" of Dzinguviene and later discovered she gave birth to a baby girl in the town of Marijampole, 13 miles away. Three days later, mother and baby left the hospital. It is alleged no one saw the baby again.

Dzinguviene told the court she did not consent to being extradited. A full hearing into the matter was scheduled for February.

During an 11-day trial at the High Court in Livingston, jurors heard that Dzinguviene arrived in Scotland seven months pregnant in February 2010.

She hid her pregnant condition from friends in her Aberdeenshire home and called an ambulance only at the last minute after she went into labour.

She gave birth to Paulius Dzingus, weighing 6lbs 9oz, a "very healthy baby boy" at Fraserburgh hospital, on April 12.

The jury heard that Dzinguviene tried to leave hospital at once, clutching her blood and mucus-stained hospital sheet around her and heading for the door.

Both the neighbours and hospital staff noted she had no clothes, no pram or cuddly toys in the first floor flat on Fraserburgh High Street that she shared with her husband Arunas Dzingus and her other children aged nine, five and three.

The jury of eight women and seven men, took just over an hour to find Dzinguviene guilty.

They found her guilty, by majority verdict, of murdering Paulius - between two and four hours later according to pathologists by holding the plastic food wrap over his nose and mouth until he stopped breathing.

Passing sentence at the High Court in Glasgow last June, judge John Beckett QC told Dzinguviene she would serve at least 15 years for the "wicked" murder of a "defenceless and extremely vulnerable" child.

A Crown spokesman said: "Following the execution of a European Arrest Warrant, in connection with an alleged incident in Lithuania, Ineta Dzinguviene will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today for an initial appearance.

"As extradition proceedings are now ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."

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