Mother who killed her newborn by smothering him with cling film jailed

Mother who killed her newborn son by smothering him with cling film is jailed for eight-and-a-half years after she admitted killing him on grounds of diminished responsibility

• Baby Paulius was just hours old when his mother smothered him with cling film 
• Ineta Dzinguviene, 38, now faces being deported to her homeland of Lithuania

A mother who killed her newborn son by smothering him with cling film has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail, meaning she could soon be out of prison having served most of her tariff.

Ineta Dzinguviene, 38, was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow after she pleaded guilty to culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility at an earlier hearing in Edinburgh.

Baby Paulius was just hours old when Dzinguviene placed a piece of cling film over his mouth and smothered him to death at her home in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, in April 2010.

Dzinguviene had previously been convicted of murdering Paulius and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 15 years in jail in 2011, but this conviction was quashed in March by the appeal court.

She now faces being deported to her homeland of Lithuania to serve a 15-year jail sentence she received for the murder of her other child, three-day old daughter Paulina.

Ineta Dzinguviene, 38, pleaded guilty to culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility

Paulina was killed in 2009 after her mother wrapped her in a plastic bag and placed her in a cupboard. 

In June 2011, the then 26-year-old was jailed for a minimum of 15 years at the High Court in Glasgow after the death of her son.

As she received therapy in prison, she disclosed details of a traumatic childhood and her abusive relationship.

There were reports at the time that she had wanted to hide her pregnancy from her husband. 

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred her case to the appeal court after fresh evidence was obtained about her mental state at the time of her son’s death.

It showed she suffered from complex post-traumatic stress disorder after suffering years of domestic and sexual abuse.

Dzinguviene has now effectively served her sentence, which was backdated to when she was first remanded in custody on April 15, 2010.

At the sentencing on Tuesday, judge Lady Poole told the court: ‘You had an upbringing characterised by neglect, and then a troubled marriage.’

Dzinguviene pleaded guilty to one charge of culpable homicide of her hours-old baby, Paulius Dzingus, at the High Court in Edinburgh (pictured)

The judge said she had taken into account a criminal justice social work report and everything said in Dzinguviene’s defence.

Lady Poole continued: ‘You have had a very difficult life. In particular, your treatment at the hands of others prior to being imprisoned makes difficult reading.

‘You have various issues with your health. You have been in custody since 15 April 2010. In prison you have engaged well, including with programmes offered to you.

‘Although your culpability at the time of your offending was diminished by your mental state, the harm you caused was extreme.

‘You took the life of your son Paulius. He was a newborn baby. You deprived your son of his life and all he could have been.

‘After you killed Paulius, you hid his body in a bag amongst rubbish in the common stairway where you lived.

‘Killing a defenceless baby is behaviour which society cannot tolerate. You must be punished for what you did.’

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