Daughter Found Her Mum Had Hidden 4 DEAD Babies in Her Bedroom for 20yrs
 

Horrified Daughter Discovered Her Mother, 64, Had Hidden Three of Her Stillborn Baby Daughters in Her Wardrobe and Another in a Bag Beside Her Bed for 20 YEARS

• Bernadette Quirk wrapped three in newspaper kept in bin with air freshener
• Remains of babies were found in 2009 by her daughter who contacted police.
• Police believe she was drinking and having casual sex after marriage broke up
• Quirk was spared jail at UK Liverpool Crown Court in 2010 but died in February 2019

Daily Mail UK, 11 APR 2019....



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Bernadette Quirk, pictured outside Liverpool Crown Court in 2010, wrapped three of the babies in newspaper and rags in a plastic bin...


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The remains of the babies were found in 2009 by her daughter Joanne Lee, pictured recently...


A mother who hid three of her stillborn baby daughters in her wardrobe and another in a bag beside her bed for 20 years has died aged 64.

Bernadette Quirk, of St Helens, Merseyside, wrapped three of the babies in newspaper and rags kept in a small plastic bin with an air freshener.

The remains of the babies – whom she gave birth to between 1985 and 1995 - were found in 2009 by her daughter Joanne Lee, who contacted police.

Each of the babies had a different father, and police believe they were born when she was drinking and having casual sex after her marriage broke up in the 1980s.

Quirk was spared jail at Liverpool Crown Court in December 2010 after admitting four counts of concealing births. She died in February.

Ms Lee, 47, who is a mother-of-three and grandmother-of-four, has now written of the harrowing story in a book called Silent Sisters, published on April 18.

She told the Liverpool Echo: 'I couldn't stand the woman - and what she put us all through. But I wouldn't go back and change any of it. It's made me a better mother and person.'

Ms Lee was 26 in May 1998 when her sister Cath, then 16, told her that Quirk had put the remains of a baby in the wardrobe.

Without telling authorities, she then helped her mother bury the baby in the family grave, where her own son John had been legally buried.

Ms Lee added: 'If I had known then what I know now I would have gone to the police there and then.

'I knew I was doing wrong and I could have gone to jail but I think a lot of it was to do with me losing my own child, and I felt sorry for her. I thought she was grieving.'

She also told how her mother had mental health issues, and used to claim Freddie Mercury had given her ballet lessons and she had 'got off' with Michael Jackson.


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Quirk fell into a 'chaotic and dysfunctional' lifestyle after the break-up of her marriage


At Liverpool Crown Court in 2010, prosecutor Anya Horwood told how Quirk had fallen into a 'chaotic and dysfunctional' lifestyle following the break-up of her second marriage.

She said: 'The defendant's heavy drinking significantly impaired her ability to look after her children, her family and herself. She had a number of sexual relationships during this period.'

There was no explanation about why Quirk kept the remains with her - moving home several times in the intervening years.

At the end of July 2009, Quirk's daughter discovered the remains of one baby in her mother's wardrobe at her house.

Police then searched the property and Quirk directed them to the remains of two more infants, also wrapped up in the bedroom.



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Ms Lee has written about the harrowing story in a book called Silent Sisters, out on April 18



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The defendant told detectives she gave birth to the four babies at her previous home in St Helens, and they were all stillborn.


Forensic tests suggested they had congenital disorders and Quirk was charged with concealing birth contrary to the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

Ian Morris, defending, said Quirk embarked on a series of inappropriate relationships following the breakdown of her marriage.

He said she hid the pregnancies because she was ashamed of what she had done and did not believe in abortion.