Barnsley mum who killed baby in Leeds park sentenced to indefinite hospital order
Hayley MacFarlane was suffering from post-partum psychosis when she fatally harmed her five-month-old daughter
A mother who killed her baby in a Leeds park while taking a walk from a mental health unit where she was being treated has been sentenced to a hospital order.
Hayley MacFarlane, 39, from Barnsley was suffering from post-partum psychosis and depression when she smothered five-month-old Evelyn in Woodhouse Moor after walking out of a Christmas party in December 2023, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Lambert said: "I am satisfied that but for your condition of post-partum psychosis and your depression, you would not have harmed your baby."
MacFarlane and her husband became parents to Evelyn in July 2023 and there were no initial concerns from health professionals about the baby's health.
But the new mother, who had no history of offending or violence and who friends and family described as gentle and caring, became anxious that she was harming Evelyn's development.
She referred herself to her GP for treatment, later being detained under the Mental Health Act after she found herself submerging the baby in the kitchen sink of the family home in Barnsley last November.
She was being treated at a mother and baby unit in Leeds and had responded to treatment, becoming a voluntary patient, when she was allowed to take Evelyn out for a walk following a Christmas party.
Mrs Justice Lambert said MacFarlane took the baby to Hyde Park, Leeds, where she smothered her with a muslin cloth, then called her husband and the police, making an immediate confession.
"You were hysterical and told the police you deserved everything that was going to happen to you," the judge said.
Post-partum psychosis is a rare mental health condition which occurs shortly after birth and poses a significant risk to both the baby and mother, the court heard.
The judge said she had read many character references which spoke of MacFarlane's caring and empathetic nature, as well as a letter from the defendant which acknowledged the "enormity of the devastation" caused to the baby's father and wider family.
MacFarlane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after she admitted a charge of infanticide, as opposed to murder.