We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A FRENCH COURT jailed a housewife for nine years today for killing eight of her newborns after a dramatic trial in which she lied about having an incestuous relationship with her father.
Dominique Cottrez, a 51-year-old former health worker, was found guilty of suffocating eight of her babies between 1989 and 2000, shortly after secretly giving birth to them.
Most of the killings occurred in the bathroom of her home near the Belgian border.
The sentence was half that requested by prosecutors. After five hours of deliberation, the jury said Cottrez suffered from impaired judgement.
Visibly relieved at the verdict, Cottrez embraced her husband and two daughters.
Her lawyers had pleaded with the nine-member jury to take into account the “distress” of a fragile woman plagued by neuroses.
“If this women took pleasure (in her acts) we would not have found the bodies. She conserved them … she woke up at night in winter to cover their bodies,” said lawyer Frank Berton.
Another lawyer Marie-Helene Carlier recalled that other countries such as Finland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom had often reduced the prison sentences of women who kill newborns after pregnancy denial.
Carlier said Cottrez, who suffers from obesity, had been “destroyed” after a mid-wife chided her for being overweight during the birth of her first child.
“We never pleaded innocence, only distress,” said Carlier.
Horror
Cottrez’s crimes were uncovered in July 2010 when a new owner moved into her parents’ home in northern France and unearthed the bodies of two of her infants wrapped in plastic bags buried in the garden.
A resulting police investigation turned up six other tiny corpses in a tank in the garage at Cottrez’s home.
The housewife initially told investigators that she feared the babies were born from a sexual relationship with her father that had taken place from her childhood until his death in 2007.
However, testing showed her husband had fathered the children and in a spectacular turnaround she on Monday admitted in court she had fabricated the story.
Cottrez was able to hide the pregnancies from her doctors as well as her husband and two adult daughters in part due to her obesity, since she weighed up to 130 kilos (286 pounds) while pregnant.
“I did all this alone, I admit it,” she told the court on Wednesday, though she added she believed her husband was aware of what was happening.
Magistrate Annelise Cau said the killings were carried out with “determination, awareness, organisation and above all cool-headedness.”
Prosecutor Eric Vaillant said that Cottrez needed to go to prison, “so that she realises the absolute horror of the crimes she has committed.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
If it was a man that killed them I’m
Sure it would be a different outcome.
You took the words from my mouth.
Did you forget to read the article? ‘Another lawyer Marie-Helene Carlier recalled that other countries such as Finland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom had often reduced the prison sentences of women who kill newborns after **pregnancy denial**’ You do realise they are factoring in things like extreme mental changes due to hormonal influences (I’m sure you’ve heard of post-natal depression)? And you are aware that only women can be pregnant/give birth? Otherwise we’re going to have to have a little chat…
So you’re actually *agreeing* with the statement that a child murdering father would have been treated differently. You’re just saying it’s *right and proper* that women be treated more lightly when murdering their children. I’d also say that “pregnancy denial” and “hormones” don’t really factor in here. That refers to a temporarily mentally unbalanced mother who has been hiding her pregnancy with no intent to kill, but whom panics and starts to see Protecting the Secret as more important than anything else. This case went on for ELEVEN YEARS. She didn’t panic, she didn’t get trapped in a lie she only started out of desperation. She wasn’t temporarily effected by hormones. Rather, this is a serial killer who collected dead babies. To add to that collection she needed (i) to make a baby and (ii) make it dead.
Once maybe twice. But 8 times. That is pure evil. Get over your women’s lib bullshit and admit that women are capable of being just as evil as men.
Who mentioned Women’s Lib? And who said I was agreeing or disagreeing with anything? I was quoting the article and pointing out the judge’s/jury’s logic. I didn’t even touch on my opinion. Please don’t tell me what I am/am not saying. I’m very capable of expressing that myself
F#$k……
Jailed ? She should be shot.
I don’t understand how she could hide all pregnancies and then the bodies from her husband. Did they not live together?
Laura.. I met an old friend recently and she is around 18 or 20 stone.. She told me she was due in a few weeks and you would never guess she was pregnant. No way.. As for this woman who killed her 8 newborns, she doesn’t come across as evil. But what she has done is pure evil. I really don’t know what to make of this. But she should spend a very long time in jail. Why should they be lenient on her. If the father done this it would be a different story
Yeah I understand sometimes people don’t look pregnant but when you are living with someone closely there are certain things you would pick up on. I think if my husband was waking at night to cover dead babies in would notice. this whole story seems strange. she had to have been enabled for so long, there is a whole family of guilt here.
I know Laura. If it happened once you’d understand they might have missed it. But eight times?
And she was a health worker?
*sigh* A man’s had eight of his children murdered and we’re STILL casting about for ways it must be his fault.
A health worker murdering eight of her own children. PURE EVIL… Should have got double. Blaming it on weight issues. The neck on her…
her lawyer said it was weight issues, clearly the woman has other issues to be dealt with. It doesnt make it right however, but any other sentence would not have righted the wrongs. there was something wrong with this woman, like the woman in the US, that sat her son on a swing for 2 days. sometimes we just have to show compassion and understanding and hope we can get to these incidents before the most awful happens. that little girl found in a bag a few weeks ago, shes ok now, thank god.
All serial killers have “issues”, pretty much by definition. I don’t see how treating one who’s murdered eight people like a victim themselves really protects society.
This woman does not deserve understanding or compassion. She had no consideration for the fact that she murdered her husband’s children and she falsely accused her father of incest. She is a psychopathic serial killer. If she didn’t want children she had many options available to her. But she chose to give birth, murder and blame her father.
Very very said case. She apparently used smothering her babies as a form of contraception. Why didn’t she take the pill?
She doesn’t seem to have been doing it as contraception. The defence tried to spin the fact that she didn’t dispose of the bodies but *kept them in a collection* and sometimes fussed over the corpses in that collection as a sign she didn’t have bad intents. On the contrary, it suggests she was *deliberately* getting pregnant repeatedly to add to her collection. I mean, she was averaging getting pregnant five months after the previous birth for more than a decadd. That suggests to me some conscious effort to keep on getting pregnant again.
Hope she rots in prison.
If she’d killed them three months earlier she’d be described as heroic by many on here.
I think your yoke slipped out egg head!
Egg, you have a strange view of what it means to be pro-choice. Stick to the topic
The sentencing is ridiculous. 8 murders! 8! Not to mention them being just babies. Absolutely horrific.
Jesus, and I thought it was just this country that had a fu(ked up justice system where the criminals got treated with more kindness than the victims.
Nine years for eight counts of murder, what the fcuk is wrong with this world.
Can’t believe she used her weight as an excuse… lots of people have issues with their weight but they don’t go around smothering babies. You’d wonder why a contraceptive wasn’t being used… it’s like she wanted to be pregnant but not… even though she has two daughters. Very bizarre. I can’t get my head around it at all. Sickening.
9 years! That’s a disgrace!
have your say