Young mother admits to crime

A 22-year-old woman who has confessed to throwing her infant child down a light shaft in the building where she lives has been given until Friday to prepare her defense by an investigative magistrate who visited her at Alexandra Hospital in Athens, where she is receiving treatment for shock.

Her lawyer said the woman feels great remorse over her action and that experts attributed her behaviour to postnatal depression.

According to reports the women confessed to police that, after giving birth in her bathtub on Friday, she used scissors to cut the umbilical cord and threw the placenta in the trash. She then wrapped the infant in a sheet and threw it down the light shaft of her Athens apartment block in Nea Smyrni.

According to reports, the infant, a boy, fell into a net in the light shaft and died 12 hours later due to lack of care. The baby was found by...