Woman quizzed about baby in burning bag

A 22-year-old woman was being questioned by police in Co Antrim tonight following the grim discovery of the body of a new born baby in a burning bag on a country roadside.

The baby girl was found by a farmer outside Ballyclare, Co Antrim early today after he saw a fire begin near a car parked on a hillside road minutes before the vehicle drove off.

The farmer, who asked not to be named, said he was horrified after raising the alarm and being told by police that a baby had been in the burning plastic bag he found near his farm in the Carnlea Road area of Dunamoy.

He revealed that he just happened to be in his farmyard at around midnight when he noticed a car parked on a nearby hill road.

“I then saw a fire starting beside the car and I waited a minute or two until the car left and then went over to see what was happening,” he said.

“I saw the bag on fire and stamped on it to try to put it out. I felt a hard object in the bag and kicked it out of the way of the fire into a field.

“I didn’t know what it was at the time, I thought it was a dead animal and as a farmer I see that type of thing quite a bit.”

The farmer then contacted the police who arrived within minutes and told him what they found in the bag.

“The police shone a torch into the field, then told me what it was I kicked out of the bag – it was a baby.”

The Police Service confirmed that the woman had been arrested for questioning following the grim discovery.

It was the third time the body of a new born baby has been found abandoned in Northern Ireland in little more than two years.

Last March the battered body of a little girl, named Carrie by police, was found on a lane leading to a leisure centre at Carryduff, Co Down.

Despite the DNA testing of over 600 local women police have yet to identify the mother.

Last month, police investigating the murder delivered over 1,000 Christmas cards to local households in a fresh bid to gather more information.

In October 2000 the body of a week old boy was discovered in a shallow grave in a wood on the shore of Strangford Lough near Newtownards, Co Down. A murder investigation is continuing.