Hidden Pregnancy Shocks Courtroom: Accused Infanticide Mother Gives Birth During Trial

Nora R., 31, did not appear before the Assize Court on Monday, September 29. The reason? She gave birth over the weekend in prison, without anyone knowing she was pregnant. Experiencing contractions in her prison cell, the thirty-year-old was taken to the hospital where she gave birth. Her absence led the court to suspend the trial. The medical team estimates she can resume her trial normally as of Tuesday, but the court grants the accused and her lawyers an additional day to reorganize.

Her defense had requested a three-month postponement after the unexpected childbirth, but this request was denied. She had also requested a new psychiatric evaluation because she believes this new hidden pregnancy brings a new perspective to the case, but she once again faced the court’s refusal. "The psychiatric and psychological experts will indeed testify at the trial and all parties can therefore question them," Belga reports.

Nora is suspected of having killed her newborn in the night of February 17 to 18, 2018. That night, she had given birth alone and discreetly in the bathroom of her father’s home in Lanklaar (Dilsen-Stokkem). According to the investigation, "she suffocated the baby before wrapping the body in sheets and hiding it in a wheeled suitcase that she placed next to a wardrobe on the first floor of her father’s home."

At the time, 23-year-old Nora R. already had two children with her ex-partner and had become pregnant again just before their breakup. A responsibility she was not ready to assume. It was the father who found the suitcase on March 10, 2018, as well as the baby with tissues in its mouth.