A young teenager who gave birth in secret and placed her new born baby in a bin liner where it died has been ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment but will not be sent to a juvenile detention centre.

The girl, who was 14 at the time, was given a suspended sentence of eight months for killing her child in December 2014. She gave birth to the baby at the home of her father’s girlfriend and dumped the bag containing the baby outside.

Her family knew nothing of her pregnancy and the body of the baby was found by a passerby.

The girl told the court she thought the baby was dead because it did not move or make a sound. However, a post mortem examination found the child was alive when placed in the bag and died either of suffocation, hunger or cold.

The judge said that despite the ‘very serious’ nature of the crime, the girl had acted because she was afraid of being found out and that she showed signs of diminished responsibility. In addition, the court took her youth and the long time the case had taken to come to trial into account when handing down a suspended sentence.