Derek Achong

The 32-year-old moth­er who re­port­ed­ly aban­doned her new­born ba­by two days be­fore Christ­mas is ex­pect­ed to ap­pear in court ei­ther to­day or to­mor­row charged with child aban­don­ment. The woman, of Tacarigua, re­mained de­tained at the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion up to late yes­ter­day as in­ves­ti­ga­tors vis­it­ed the of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) for ad­vice on charges which could be laid against her.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors were said to be con­sid­er­ing charg­ing the woman un­der Sec­tion Three of the Chil­dren Act, un­der which the of­fence car­ries a $10,000 fine or up to two years' im­pris­on­ment. Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, the ba­by boy was found on De­cem­ber 23 out­side the St Mary's Chil­dren's Home, Tacarigua, by guards who heard his cries.

The ba­by, who has not been named, re­mains un­der the care of nurs­es at the Wendy Fitzwilliam Pae­di­atric Hos­pi­tal, Mt?Hope. The child's moth­er, who al­so has two oth­er young chil­dren, was ar­rest­ed at her Tacarigua home on Tues­day evening by North­ern Di­vi­sion de­tec­tives.

Po­lice sources said while un­der in­ter­ro­ga­tion af­ter her ar­rest, the woman ad­mit­ted to leav­ing the child at the or­phan­age, say­ing she could not fi­nan­cial­ly sup­port an­oth­er child. ACP Wayne Dick, Se­nior?Supt David Abra­ham and WPC Dick-Fran­cis are work­ing on the case.