French mother jailed for suffocating eight babies Published duration 2 July 2015

image copyright AFP image caption Dominique Cottrez (right) confessed to suffocating her children after giving birth secretly at home

A court in northern France has sentenced a woman to nine years in prison for killing eight of her newborn babies between 1989 and 2000.

At the trial in the town of Douai, the prosecution had asked for an 18-year term for Dominique Cottrez, 51.

The defence had argued that the former health worker should be acquitted because of her troubled mental state.

Cottrez earlier confessed to suffocating her children after giving birth secretly at home near Lille.

She then buried the bodies in the garden of her parents' home and at her own home nearby in Villers-au-Tertre.

The former nursing assistant had previously said she had a long incestuous relationship with her father and that she feared each baby might be his.

However, during the trial she did not talk about the relationship.

Cottrez, who is obese, also said that from a young age she had battled with her weight and was mocked by other children at school.

She apparently managed to conceal her pregnancies from everyone, including her doctor and her husband, because of her obesity.

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