French mother charged with murder of eight newborn babies

Dominique Cottrez, a nursing auxiliary, has admitted to killing her babies but told police her husband had no idea of her actions

Lizzy Davies in Villers-au-Tertre guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 July 2010 11.17 BST

A mother-of-two who worked as a nursing auxiliary in the north-eastern French city of Douai has been charged with the murder of eight of her newborn babies, sources said, as police pushed forward with their investigations into France's apparently worst ever infanticide.

The woman, who has been named locally as Dominique Cottrez, a lifelong inhabitant of the nearby village of Villers-au-Tertre, appeared before a judge this morning along with her husband, Pierre-Marie Cottrez, a pillar of the local community and municipal councillor.

Eric Vaillant, the prosecutor of Douai, said he had requested Mr Cottrez be charged with the failure to report a crime and the concealment of a body. According to multiple sources, his wife has admitted to killing her babies but told police her husband had no idea of what she was doing.

Vaillant, who has refused to confirm these details, is to hold a press conference this afternoon to shed new light on the affair for the hundreds of journalists who have descended on the region from all corners of Europe.

For the inhabitants of Villers-au-Tertre, the small village where the Cottrez couple have lived for decades, the discovery of the eight corpses has caused shock and disbelief. Ever since Tuesday, when the pair were arrested after police found the bodies of six babies in plastic bags in their house, neighbours have been struggling to understand how the family could have hidden such a secret.

"Pierre-Marie is a very nice guy. I am just overwhelmed and I'm finding it impossible to understand," said one villager, who did not want his name to be published. "He's a mate of mine. We used to have a drink, talk about work … He is very generous. He wears his heart on his sleeve," he said, adding: "I see no reason why he would have known anything about this."

The alleged murders came to the attention of local police on Saturday, when the owners of a house that had formerly been the property of Dominique Cottrez's parents, now deceased, stumbled upon the tiny bones of two newborns in the garden.

The investigation led quickly to the couple's current home, a kilometre away, where police discovered six other bodies. Even today, teams of investigators and forensic experts from Douai, Paris and Lille are combing the sites to make sure no other bodies are there.

Village mayor Patrick Mercier said a third house in which the couple had briefly lived was also being explored.

Speaking to local media, he described Pierre-Marie Cottrez as a third-term municipal councillor who was "respectable and respected". He added: "On the pregnancies, no one had any idea of anything. The mother would go out rarely; she has significant weight problems. She's a pleasant person even if she was withdrawn."

Other villagers portrayed Dominique Cottrez as a "devoted" daughter who cared for her father until his death. She was "deserving", said one, and "a very good mother" who spent a lot of time with her two grownup daughters, Emeline and Virginie, and their two sons.

On her Facebook page, Mrs Cottrez states her employers as the Douai branch of the SSIAD, an association which provides home care for the elderly or disabled. A spokesperson for the SSIAD refused to speak to the Guardian when asked to confirm this.

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/29/french-mother-murder-eight-babies