British woman found guilty of killing her newborn on Crete

Unless she appeals to the Supreme Court (Arios Pagos), an EAW will be issued for the arrest of Leah Andrew, to serve a 5 year sentence in a Greek jail.

The trial began last week and was postponed, due to the absence of her lawyer.

Back in 2009, she was cleared of suffocating her newborn son, as a Greek jury found Leah Andrew not guilty of infanticide by a 4-3 margin.

The 21-year-old had served almost a year in prison awaiting trial.

Andrew, of Hither Green, South London, had been accused of strangling the boy after giving birth alone in her hotel room in the tourist resort of Malia last July.

But she always insisted she was innocent and had not killed the baby.

The single mother of two other young children, she was forced to spend almost a year in prison on remand after lawyers twice failed to secure her release on bail.

A coroner’s report concluded the newborn baby had been born healthy, but had died of suffocation.

According to Andrew’s testimony, her London doctor estimated that she was only six months pregnant  and was therefore safe to fly on holiday, and not eight and a half months pregnant as eventually determined by the Greek medical coroner.

She gave birth during the early hours after returning to her hotel room following a night out with sister Lydia, 25, and a friend.

Police were called when her sister and friend found the dead infant and Andrew.

Andrew told the court she thought the baby was premature and would not survive and therefore failed to give it adequate attention.

‘I certainly did not kill my own child,’ she told the jury at Rethymno City Criminal Court in Crete.