Tragedy of attic baby

be known

HOW the newborn baby found in an attic in Portstewart flat before Christmas came to die may never be known, a senior detective has said.

Detective Inspector Sean Fitzpatrick admitted that much of the tragic case remains shrouded in mystery, not least whether the tiny skeleton was that of a boy or girl.

The remains of the baby were found hidden under floorboards at 29 The Promenade on December 18, wrapped in an edition of The Evening Standard newspaper, dated June 1935.

A magazine, My Weekly, and a chocolate wrapper were also found nearby.

The shocking discovery set in motion a widescale investigation involving the Home Office, police forces across the UK, a forensic anthropologist and one of Britain's best known chocolate manufacturers in an attempt to piece together the sad circumstances of the short life and death of 'the baby in the attic.'

As The Coleraine Times revealed in January, detectives contacted the Home Office in order to get fingerprint records from the 1930s released to them in the hope of identifying fingerprints on the newspaper.

They also contacted chocolate makers Bourneville and learned that the chocolate wrapper found at the scene was only printed between 1934 and 1937.

The detectives consulted the National Police Improvement Agency - set up to bring together experts from various fields across the UK together to assist with investigations - and they were put in touch with police who had been involved in similar cases.

However last week, Det Inspector Fitzpatrick, said that several reports back from experts still failed to shine any further light on "a sad and tragic case."

"The carbon dating of the bones dated them as being pre-1955 and anytime from the 17th century onwards so that has not really told us anything new.

"With the evidence we have we stuck with 1935. However we have registered the child's death with no official date of birth, unnamed and unaged.

"We would not be hopeful of ever being able to establish how the child died. The report from the coroner has described it as an 'uncertified death'."

"One feels very sad for the little baby and of, course, its mother. We may never know what happened."

The passage of time - some 75 years now - seriously hindered police in getting the answers they wanted from an unusual case.

Through talking to local people they were able to discover who lived in the house at the time, but unfortunately the people are now deceased.

It was also thought that the female resident was not the mother of the baby, but may have assisted the mother during or following the birth.