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A young mum sobbed in court as she pleaded guilty to hiding her baby son's body in a drain in the back garden of her parents' home.

Sinead Connett, 28, from Hertford, had concealed her pregnancy from her parents, who said they didn't know they had a grandchild.

Connett admitted wrapping her baby boy in a towel and three plastic bags, before placing the full-term newborn in a drainage pit at the bottom of the garden of Ann and Stuart Connett, in Scartho Road, Grimsby.

Connett appeared at Grimsby Magistrates' Court this morning to face a charge of concealing the birth of a child and the secret disposition of the dead body of a child, reports the Grimsby Telegraph.

She will be sentenced at Grimsby Crown Court on June 9.

The baby's body is believed to have been placed in the drain between August 2, 2013, and August 13, 2013, but wasn't discovered until February 11, 2016.

(Image: PA)

The discovery was made by a plumbing engineer who had been called in by Mr Connett, following two years of drainage problems with the couple's downstairs toilet, at the home they've owned since 1999.

The court heard how the baby's body was found in a "seriously decomposed" state and with a fractured skull.

A cause of death was not ascertained, however, and a post mortem exam could not identify when exactly the death occurred.

Rebecca Dolby, prosecuting, told the court how both the engineer and Mr Connett reacted in shock when the cause of the blockage, a black bin bag, was pulled from the "concealed" drainage system, covered by an iron plate and surrounded by foliage.

Connett wiped away the tears as the magistrates were told that the pair pierced the three bags to find the boy wrapped in a towel having been festering among sewage for two-and-a-half years.

The court heard the blockage was caused because the baby's head was too big to pass through the drainage system, causing the pit to overflow with water.

Police were called to the scene and an investigation was launched soon after the discovery.

Neither Mr or Mrs Connett could explain why the body was there, and told officers how they had no known grandchildren, the court was told.

Investigators identified no suspects initially, but took DNA samples from Sinead, Ann and Stuart Connett, which conclusively revealed the 28-year-old as the baby's maternal mother.

Ms Dolby said that, in police interview, Connett confessed to being the child's mum.

Connett was represented by Rebecca Perrin, of Roy Foreman & Co.

Chair of the magistrates, Terry Moss, granted Connett unconditional bail.