The Juvenile Court has acquitted a woman who police alleged killed her newborn baby, ruling that her three confessions contradicted each other.
Police alleged that at 2:00 on July 16, the then 16-year old woman drowned the baby after giving birth in the bathroom of her home, before putting its body into a plastic bag and throwing it into a lagoon on the south side of Dhanbidhoo in Laamu atoll.
The court noted that according to article 52 of the constitution, no confession is admissible as evidence unless made in court by an accused who is in a sound state of mind.
Haveeru reported that police checked all women on the island between the ages of 12 and 45 in the island after the dead infant was discovered in the lagoon.