Trial opens of French mother accused of killing eight babies

Accused said she killed the babies because they were from an incestuous relationship with her father

DOUAI: A murder trial opened Thursday of a French housewife accused of killing eight of her children at birth which she claimed were from an incestuous relationship with her father.

Dominique Cottrez, a 51-year-old former health worker, was in tears even before the proceedings began in a northern French court in a case that has drawn outrage across the country.

Dominique Cottrez is accused of suffocating eight of her newborn babies has gone on trial after telling investigators that the children were the result of a long, incestuous relationship with her father. PHOTO: AFP

Read: Post-mortem report of strangled child confirms sexual assault

She is accused of suffocating eight of her babies between 1989 and 2000 shortly after secretly giving birth to them on towels in the bathroom of her home near the Belgian border.

Cottrez's obesity made the pregnancies undetectable, even for her doctors as well as her husband and two adult daughters.

Virginie Cottrez, daughter of Dominique, arrives at the court in Douai. PHOTO: AFP

"Each time, I hoped the good Lord would do something, a miracle. Like someone would tell me, 'Look, you're pregnant.' Maybe then I would have said something, it would have triggered something in me and I would have gotten treatment," she told a local newspaper in January.

In the end the trigger came from outside when in July 2010 a new owner moved into the home of Cottrez's parents in the northern French village of Villers-au-Tertre and unearthed two bodies of infants wrapped in plastic bags buried in the garden.

Anne Segond (left), president of the North Assize Court in Douai, speaks during the trial of Dominique Cottrez, who is charged with infanticide earlier this morning. PHOTO: AFP

Six more were later found in Cottrez's own home nearby.

Cottrez 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 has revealed that all of the dead infants were fathered by her husband, Pierre-Marie Cottrez. Some of the children were born while he was away for business.

The 20 stone nurse's obesity hid the pregnancies, which went unnoticed by her husband Pierre-Marie Cottrez (left) and the couple's two daughters Emeline and Virginia. PHOTO: AFP

"She was prisoner to a downward psychological spiral. For her, these children had no identity, they were just the results of an incestuous relationship with her father," said one of her lawyers, Frank Berton.

The trial is expected to delve into whether Cottrez was fully conscious of her crimes. It may also reveal what, if any, suspicions her family had.

Read: Bodies of five babies recovered from France house

The infants' corpses were hidden in a laundry basket, the garage and cabinets at her family home. Yet at the conclusion of their investigation authorities did not file charges against any of her family members.

An excavator combed the garden of Cottrez' house, where two babies' remains were found in 2010. PHOTO: AFP

Childrens' welfare groups have expressed outrage over the case.

"This is not a case of pregnancy denial, it's the denial of a child. Mrs. Cottrez used murder as a means of contraception," said Yves Crespin, the lawyer for an anti-child abuse group.

However, Cottrez's lawyers note that despite the killings she kept the bodies of the infants close to her bed over many years.

"She didn't just give birth to babies, but extensions of herself, which she was not able to let go of," said lawyer Marie-Helene Carlier.