A YOUNG mother who killed her two newborn babies and kept their bodies in binbags hidden in a wardrobe escaped jail yesterday.
Susan MacLeod admitted killing her son and daughter by failing to get proper medical care when they were born.
A year after she was convicted of culpable homicide, MacLeod, who suffers from mental illness, appeared at the High Court in Airdrie to be sentenced to three years probation.
MacLeod, 27, from North, Bragar, Isle of Lewis, killed her daughter between August 1, 1996, and January 31, 1997, and her son between June 30, 1998, and December 30, 1999.
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She was originally charged with three counts of murder but in March 2003 the Crown accepted her pleas to two reduced charges of culpable homicide. A third charge, involving a second baby girl, was dropped after doctors concluded that the child was stillborn.
In all three cases MacLeod gave birth alone and put the bodies in binbags, which she placed in the wardrobe of the flat that she was renting in Govan, Glasgow. She then taped the wardrobe shut. The bodies were discovered after a flatmate complained about the smell.
Sentencing MacLeod, the judge, Lord Bracadale, said: “You pled guilty to the culpable homicide of your two newly born babies, and in each case you also failed to obtain antenatal care.
“What you did with the bodies was both strange and disturbing, and is almost unknown in modern times. One of the difficulties you have stems from your inability or unwillingness to discuss in depth what has happened.
“If you fail to comply with the probation or the conditions you should understand that you will be brought before me again and a prison sentence would be highly likely.”
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Lord Bracadale also warned MacLeod that if she became pregnant again she must inform her social worker.
“You should continue with your current regime of contraception and if you should end your relationship with your current long-term partner you must immediately inform the social work department,” he said.
Yesterday Gordon Jackson, QC, for the defence, said that MacLeod had at last begun to realise what she had done.