Cheating girlfriend hid dead newborn baby in car boot to keep pregnancy secret from partner

Claire Jones, 32, hid her stillborn baby's body in a car boot

A woman hid her dead newborn baby in the boot of her car to keep an affair and resulting pregnancy secret from her partner.

Marketing executive Claire Jones, 32, found she was expecting after a fling with a man she met through work.

To explain her expanding stomach, she told her family, friends and partner of five years David Stoneman that a wheat allergy was making her put on weight.

After giving birth alone in her mother's bathroom on December 27 last year, she wrapped the stillborn baby in a carrier bag and binbags.

She then drove to the semidetached house she shared with Mr Stoneman, 33.

Jones then acted as if nothing had happened with her partner and colleagues.

But South Wales Police were tipped off by a health worker who noticed that her pregnancy had been registered but there was no record of a birth.

Officers called at her home in St Mellons, Cardiff, ten days later.

She told officers the baby had been stillborn and she had flushed the body down the toilet.

Forensic experts searched her £125,000 home and were planning to dig up the garden and search the drains when the baby's body was found in the boot of Jones's car.

She admitted she had been leading a double life with Mr Stoneman in Cardiff and an unnamed colleague in Swansea who was the father of the baby.

The scene at Claire Jones' home in Cardiff when police discovered the body of a newborn baby in January this year

Mr Stoneman, who was questioned and released without charge, left the couple's home soon after he discovered what had happened. He refused to comment yesterday.

Two inconclusive post-mortem examinations of the infant's body were carried out, including one by a Home Office pathologist.

Jones was charged with endeavouring to conceal the birth of a child.

Appearing at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, she spoke only to confirm her name and admit the charge.

Prosecutor Dan Williams told Judge John Curran: 'The prosecution is satisfied the single count now before the court is the appropriate one.'

Peter Heyward, defending, asked for social inquiry reports before Jones is sentenced.

He added: 'Clearly, this is a serious and a distressing case.

'She is now living with her mother and there have been no difficulties.'

Jones will be sentenced next month and was remanded on bail to her mother's home.

The judge said: ' Nothing should be read into the fact bail has been granted today.'

Mr Stoneman and Jones are no longer together. A former neighbour said: 'It's all very sad. They were a nice couple and Claire had a good job.

'When she put on weight last year she told everyone she had been diagnosed with an intolerance to wheat.

'No one questioned it and she said she was getting treatment which would sort it out.'

Another added: 'It must have been a double shock for him  -  first that she had had a baby but also that she had been seeing someone behind his back.'

It is understood Jones saw a doctor when she suspected she was pregnant in May of last year.

Her fears were confirmed but she failed to attend antenatal clinics or appointments for scans.

A police source said: 'We were called in because there was a record of a woman being pregnant but no record of her baby being born.

' It is a very sad set of circumstances.'