A mum stabbed her newborn daughter to death with a pair of kitchen scissors because she feared having a child would harm her career, a court has heard.

Rachel Tunstill, 26, dumped her newborn baby’s body in a bin after allegedly butchering her with scissors 15 times at the flat she shared with boyfriend Ryan Kelly.

Preston Crown Court heard the couple’s daughter Mia Kelly had been born after Tunstill had gone into labour on their toilet hile Ryan played on his XBOX.


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But she told her partner that she was ‘having another miscarriage’ and got him to hand her a pair of scissors.



Tunstill, who holds a degree in psychology and a masters in forensic psychology, told Ryan she didn’t need medical attention during the three hour-long event.

Prosecutor Louise Blackwell told the court: ‘On January 14, the defendant had been at work at Benjamin House.

‘She had gone home that evening and then in the bathroom she had given birth to Mia Kelly – there Mia Kelly met her death.’

Preston Crown Court (Picture: Rex)

Tunstill was the deputy manager at Benjamin House Care Home at the time of the incident when she gave birth in the bathroom of her flat in Burnley.

She had suffered multiple miscarriages during the year leading up to the event and even blamed herbal tea for the morning after pill not working, a jury was told.

But during a meeting with her boss at the care home in March 2016, Tunstill became upset and admitted she was suffering from stomach pains.

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Her superior explained that if she thought she was pregnant that she shouldn’t be at work because of the strict rules about working in a mental health facility while carrying a child.

The prosecution alleged that the miscarriages were a cause of Ms Tunstill wanting to climb the career ladder and being pregnant would hinder her ambitious plans.

Mrs Blackwell told the court: ‘Her iPad and mobile phone and found internet searches, including ‘bringing about abortion’.’

Police became involved when Tunstill went to Burnley General Hospital after feeling ‘the miscarriage was not complete’ on January 16 this year.

Tunstill, who denies murder, was questioned when her partner Mr Kelly, 31, was initially arrested for murder which was the first he knew about the grim discovery.

The jury was told examinations later showed an ‘abnormal growth’ which Tunstill felt was the umbilical chord still attached to the placenta.

Mrs Blackwell said: ‘Tunstill told nurses that she had passed a baby and it had not been breathing.

‘It had turned blue and she couldn’t find a pulse. She placed the baby on the floor, while she sorted herself out. Then she bagged up the baby and placed it in the bin.’

Tunstill claimed she was only five weeks pregnant – but more intrusive examinations suggested she had been pregnant for between 36 and 37 weeks.

The court heard Tunstill had told Mr Kelly she had also miscarried in March 2016 before telling him that she had fallen pregnant again in December after herbal tea had interfered with the morning after pill.



On January 14, the jury heard Tunstill told Mr Kelly, a forklift driver, that ‘it was happening again’ as the baby dropped into the basin of the toilet.

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Tunstill told police she had not flushed baby Mia ‘as she had done with her previous miscarriage’ – but held the baby to her face to see if she was still breathing.

Mrs Blackwell said Tunstill also told police the baby had a small cut to the back of its neck but offered no explanation as to how it got there.

Once baby Mia was dead, Tunstill wrapped her body in two plastic bags, walked past Mr Kelly playing on his games console, and placed the body in the bin.

Simon Kealey, defending, said: ‘There is no dispute that the baby was born alive and that the baby died as a result of a number of stab wounds.

‘But the precise process by which that occurred the defendant has no recollection of.’

The trial continues.