Flats to come down 'in a year' (From Penarth Times)

Flats to come down 'in a year'

A PENARTH mother yesterday admitted abandoning her 12-week-old baby outside a house in Newport.

The baby, who was dubbed Oliver by police officers, was found by Sarah Langley outside her Collingswood Crescent home on January 20.

At Newport magistrates court yesterday his mother pleaded guilty to child abandonment and three counts of theft.

The court decided that the charges were so serious that they sent the woman, who cannot be named but is from Penarth, to Newport Crown Court for sentencing.

Prosecutor Jamie Dewar told the court: "Mrs Langley heard a baby crying at about 8.40pm.

"She looked outside and found a pushchair with the baby inside on her garden path.

"She brought him in, fed and changed the baby, and then phoned the police, who took him to the Royal Gwent Hospital.

"The police spent £20,000 in an effort to track down Oliver's parents, but eventually she called them herself.

"The father of the baby, who was estranged from the mother, did not know that Oliver had been abandoned.

"The woman told him and others that the baby was staying with relatives."

Defence solicitor John McCarthy said: "This is a highly unusual case and I have been unable to find any precedents in the records.

"The defendant has had some serious problems.

"She is of previous good character and has pleaded guilty.

"The baby was only left for about 30 minutes and was found to be well cared for.

"She chose the house to leave the baby because its lights were on and she thought that it looked like children lived there."

At the time it was reported how Oliver had been left in a blue and orange pushchair.

He was wearing a pink snowsuit and was left with four spare nappies and two bottles of milk.

Police searched birth records locally and nationwide and made numerous appeals in a bid to find his mother.

Along the way, police also investigated the sending of a parcel of baby clothes to the incident room at Maindee station in the hope they would lead to Oliver's mum.

They turned out to be from a well wisher.

And another woman, who claimed to be his mother, was ruled out of the investigation.

They also suffered a setback in eliminating people from their inquiries because the baby's age was uncertain - he was originally thought to be 12 weeks old, then thought to be 18 to 21 weeks, then the original figure was thought to be more likely.

Det Sgt Russ Tiley was a senior officer in the search for Baby Oliver's mother.

He said: "This investigation went on for more than 12 months, and it's still ongoing, effectively.

The £20,000 did not include the wages of regular officers, but we used specialist resources and specialist investigating teams and a lots of travel was involved.

"It was unique for Gwent police, and even countrywide it's not the sort of investigation that has been done much before.

"There's no precedent for this sort of investigation, so that figure is not necessarily high."