‘Out of sight, out of mind': WA mum who hid dead baby avoids jail
Monique Ellen Burton, 35, appeared in Perth District Court on Friday, where she was sentenced for interfering with a corpse and 12 counts of fraud related to money she received in donations via a GoFundMe page.
Horrific details about how Burton hid her full-term pregnancy in late 2021 were aired in court on Thursday ahead of her sentencing, including information about how her partner had found the dead baby in a bag and 'freaked out', before putting it in the freezer.
Burton was found by her partner of 14 years, Shaun Balaam, on the sofa on the morning of August 19, 2022, feeling unwell. She told him she was feeling nauseous, but after seeing blood on her legs he took her to the hospital.
She repeatedly denied giving birth or recently being pregnant, despite medical indications to the opposite.
Days later, she admitted having had a baby, telling hospital staff it was behind the sofa. Police searched her home in Geraldton, in WA's Mid West, and spoke to her partner, who said he had found the bag but didn't know what was inside.
He suspected it might be a baby due to Burton's history of concealing pregnancies, but that he 'freaked out' and put it in the freezer for her to deal with.
A post-mortem examination could not determine if the baby had been stillborn, but Burton said it was.
On Friday, Perth District Court Judge Darren Renton said the case was 'tragic … on many levels', adding that there were 'layers of complexity'.
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