A mother who killed her newborn baby boy in 1998 while in the grip of severe post-natal depression has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence after a judge decided the case “called for compassion”.
Joanne Sharkey, from Liverpool, was only identified as the baby’s mother in July 2023 after cold case detectives found a DNA match for her older son, Matthew Sharkey, who had been arrested on suspicion of an unrelated offence.
The baby, who was named as Baby Callum at the time, had been dumped in woodland in Warrington, Cheshire, wrapped inside two binbags on 11 March that year.
Sharkey had pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Liverpool Crown Court after medical experts concluded her mental health “substantially impaired” her ability to form a rational judgement when she killed Callum.
Sharkey was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, and told she must undergo mental health treatment.
The court had heard Sharkey became pregnant in the summer of 1997, while she was suffering from undiagnosed post-natal depression following the birth of Matthew the previous year.
Judge Mrs Justice Eady, passing sentence today, told her: “You had returned to full time work after maternity leave and seemed to be coping, but that was a façade.
“You were in fact suffering from post-natal depression.
“This was not a case of the baby blues but a far more sustained period of depression which impacted on you physically and mentally.”
In her police interviews Sharkey had told detectives that when she realised she was pregnant again she thought “I can’t do this again” and tried to ignore it.
She did not tell her husband, Neil Sharkey, describing their relationship at the time as like “ships in the night” due to his shift patterns.
As the pregnancy progressed she managed to hide it from Mr Sharkey and her wider family by wearing baggy clothes and isolating herself over winter, she said.
The court heard her memory of her labour was limited due to her depression and the trauma of the delivery, but she said she gave birth alone, possibly in the bathroom of the family home in Denham Close, Croxteth, in March 1998.
Medical evidence about what how Callum died was inconclusive, but Justice Eady said it was likely he had been suffocated possibly when wads of tissue paper were inserted into his mouth and throat.
After Callum was killed Sharkey drove around 35 minutes away from her home to the Callands area of Warrington, near Gulliver’s World theme park, where she dumped his body.
