Wolverhampton rubbish chute baby mother had 'post-natal depression'
A mother who threw her six-day old baby down a 44ft-rubbish chute at a block of flats in Wolverhampton was suffering from a form of post-natal depression that affects just one in 500 women, a medical expert told jurors.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Giles Berrisford, who has 13 years experience, told Birmingham Crown Court that Jaymin Abdulrahman's symptoms at the time she is alleged to have attempted to murder her child 'fitted perfectly' with a mental illness known as postpartum psychosis.
The 25-year-old claimed that following birth and before dropping the child down the chute, she felt sad and often cried for no reason.
Dr Berrisford, who runs a mother and baby unit in Birmingham, examined Abdulrahman on two occasions while she was being held at HMP Foston Hall, in Derbyshire.
On one occasion, he asked Abdulrahman about her state of mind when she dropped her baby on September 8.
He told jurors: "She said she felt extremely sad and cried for no reason."
He went on: "As soon as she realised what happened she said it made no sense that she could have done that."
Dr Beresford was asked by defence barrister, Rachel Brand QC, what he thought Abdulrahman's mental state of mind was likely to be when the incident took place.
He responded: "I thought she was extremely unwell and suffering from postpartum psychosis."
The court previously heard that the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was discovered by her father, Mohamad Amin, in a bin at the bottom of a set of flats in Whitmore Reans.
Abdulrahman had broke up a Moses basket with her bare hands and dropped that down the chute, before alleging that two people had abducted the child.
The Kurdish national had been described by police detectives earlier in the hearing as appearing 'emotionless' when giving an account of her child being snatched from her flat during interviews.
She has now accepted that she dropped the baby down the chute but denies attempted murder, grievous bodily harm with intent, and inflicting grievous bodily harm.
The trial continues.
