Joanne Sharkey receives suspended prison sentence for manslaughter of her newborn child on the basis of diminished responsibility
4 April 2025
Joanne Sharkey was sentenced today (4 April 2025) at Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts (pictured) in Derby Square, Liverpool. Credit: Raymond Orton / Shutterstock.
Earlier today (4 April) at Liverpool Crown Court, Mrs Joanne Sharkey received a suspended two-year prison sentence for the manslaughter of her newborn child in 1998, on the basis of diminished responsibility.
Mrs Justice Eady sentenced Mrs Sharkey to six-months imprisonment, also suspended, for concealment of her son’s body. Mrs Justice Eady said that this “very sad case calls for compassion”, and that Mrs Sharkey has a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation”.
Mrs Sharkey’s sentence is suspended for two years. She will undertake a mental health treatment programme throughout the next 12 months, attending 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
Representing Mrs Sharkey, Garden Court North’s Nina Grahame KC said: “The sentencing exercise was extremely complicated, not least due to the passage of time since the tragic events. Recent studies have confirmed the fact that mothers in mental distress who kill their infants are rarely immediately imprisoned.”
“This case raised complex legal, pathological, psychiatric, psychological and factual issues assessed over many months prior to guilty pleas being entered in March 2025. The specialised legal representation necessary in complex cases involving infant deaths was clear throughout.”
A case of immense complexity
In March 1998, the body of a full term, newborn male infant was discovered next to a path in a wooded area close to Gulliver’s World Theme Park in Warrington. Despite police efforts at that time, the mother of the baby could not be found.
A periodic review of the DNA National Database in 2022 finally identified a close male relation of the baby, and thereafter the biological parents.
In 1998, Mrs Sharkey was in her late 20s, the married mother of an 18-month-old toddler. Two of the few people who were close to her noticed that she appeared depressed and struggling to cope with her first child.
It later transpired that Mrs Sharkey had masked far more serious mental and physical health symptoms, to the extent that not even her husband knew that she had become pregnant for a second time.
Her post-natal depression following the birth of her first child was moderately severe to severe, of a level that required (but did not receive) clinical treatment. This was confirmed in 2024/25 by highly experienced forensic psychiatrists, who also confirmed that the ‘disassociation’ and ‘derealisation’ characteristics of her depressive state meant that she failed to fully acknowledge the pregnancy until she actually gave birth, alone, in the bathroom of her home.
As accepted by Mrs Justice Eady, Mrs Sharkey was unable to clearly recall most of the details of the birth process. However, efforts had been made to keep the baby quiet. Following extensive expert pathological assessments, Mrs Sharkey accepted that these efforts had contributed to the infant’s death.
The case raised complex questions relating to causation and the fundamental question of whether the deceased had ever legally been a person “in being”; the offences of murder, manslaughter (and infanticide) require these elements to be proved.
Nina Grahame KC led Rebecca Filletti of Lincoln House Chambers, assisted throughout the proceedings by Jenny Price of Bell Lamb & Joynson Solicitors.
Additional media
BBC – Mum who killed baby in 1998 gets suspended sentence
Sky News – Joanne Sharkey: Mother spared prison over death of newborn son found in bin bags in woodland in 1998
The Guardian – Mother who killed newborn ‘Baby Callum’ 27 years ago spared jail
For further information, please contact Alex Blair, Communications Manager at Garden Court North Chambers: ablair@gcnchambers.co.uk
