One day in the summer of 2010, a man was digging in his garden in northern France when he discovered a trash bag containing the remains of an infant. When he summoned the police, they found the body of another newborn. A few days later, they found more bags in the garage - with six additional small corpses.
Police contacted the house's previous owners, and quickly discovered the horrifying explanation: Frenchwoman Dominique Cottrez confessed to secretly bearing and then killing eight of her newborns, saying she feared they were children of a long, incestuous relationship with her father.
However, forensic exams on the remains of the eight infants, and tests on her two living grown daughters showed that all were fathered by Cottrez's husband, according to court documents.
Cottrez, 51, went on trial Thursday in the city of Douai, accused of multiple counts of first-degree murder of minors.
Cottrez wept as she took her seat. She faces life in prison if found guilty.
Her lawyers were expected to argue that she was a victim of rape and incest, and ask for a lesser sentence.
The worst infanticide case in modern French history stunned the country when the bodies were discovered in and around the Cottrez' former home in 2010.
Cottrez's obesity appeared to hide the pregnancies, which went unnoticed by her husband, children, neighbors, colleagues and even doctors at a nearby hospital.
She has told investigators she was mocked as "fatty" in school and closed herself up at the farm with her father, who accepted her as she was.In court on Thursday, the prosecutor asked if she enjoyed being pregnant with her two daughters, Emiline, 28, and Virginie, 27, both present at the hearing. Cottrez replied, "Yes, for Emiline I liked it, but only for Emiline."
Dozens of forensic and psychiatric experts, police investigators and witnesses, including her husband, daughters and siblings, will take the stand to help understand the incomprehensible, and perhaps to help the defendant, who sobbed repeatedly during the first day's hearing, to open up.
A withdrawn, secretive nurse's aide, Cottrez told investigators she was raped by her father, first when she was 8 and repeatedly through her childhood and teenage years, according to judicial documents. She later entered a long, incestuous relationship with him as an adult, including after she married, and said that it became consenting and even said she was in love with her father more than she was with her husband.
One of the first witnesses called to the stand Thursday is Leonard Meriaux, who bought the Cottrez family house and discovered the first corpse in 2010. He called police, who found another in the garden.
From one interrogation to another, the police went from surprise to stupor. Cottrez first admitted killing the two infants found in the garden. Then she herself informed the investigators that several other bodies were in the garage of the house, but she didn't know how many exactly, according to court documents.
She told the investigating judge that she had never used contraception or had an abortion because of a phobia of doctors. She also said she didn't keep the babies because she was afraid that they were the results of her incestuous relations with her father. She said the killing had become a "means of contraception," according to the judicial documents.
She said she told her father of the eight pregnancies and the eight murders, and investigators believe he could have helped her hide some of the bodies.
The death she described the most clearly is the first one, in 1989. She said she smothered the baby boy with sheets, placed him in a trash bag that she had prepared in advance, and put the bag in her wardrobe, according to the documents.
The second killing happened when she was hospitalized for an epilepsy seizure. She said she gave birth in the hospital toilet, strangled the child, wrapped it in plastic sheeting and towels, placed it in the closet of her hospital room and then brought it back home, hidden in her garment bag.
Her memories became blurred for the following births and deaths. The last infanticide was in 2000.
Her husband and daughters say they noticed foul odors in various parts of the house, but thought they came from sewage, or their dog, or even their father's feet.
Cottrez was released from jail in 2012 after spending two years in temporary detention.
In a January interview with a local newspaper, she said: "I never gave first names to the babies. The first one, I saw he was a baby boy. The others, I didn't look, I didn't want to. But when they were in the garage, when it was cold, I went there and covered them with a blanket. "
The verdict is expected next Thursday.
Proud dad, Dr Sid shared new photos of his princess-Sydney. She looks so adorable!
Mariah Carey is used to being the top diva at the table but after a power lunch with a bunch of billionaires, she had to take a back seat..financially.
Mariah who seems to be having a ball with her beau James Packer, finally got off the yacht and grabbed a bite with James and a few of his billionaire friends.
Mariah is worth a whooping $500mil but that's nothing compared to the people she had dinner with. Her bf James Packer is worth $4.6bil, his friend Harry Stokes $1.,26bil and Ron Perelman $14.7 bil.
I am sure Mariah didn't feel too bad because she had her friend Brett Ratner at the dinner with her and he's worth only...$65 mil. Lol.
Men of the Plateau State Police Command have arrested a 40-year-old man, Surulere Raphael, for cutting off his daughter’s finger on allegation that she stole his money.
Mr Raphael was paraded on Friday at the police headquarters alongside one Ponjue Domsing, who was alleged to have killed his father, Mr. Domsing, for not buying him a motorcycle as promised.
Raphael said he cut off his daughter’s finger because she stole his N1,500and meat from her mother’s pot of soup. The girl’s severed finger has, however, been recovered as an exhibit, while the girl is being treated in the hospital.
The state Commissioner of Police, Nasiru Oki, said the suspects would be charged to court for culpable homicide and criminal conspiracy.
He said:
“The Plateau State Police Command, in its resolve to rid the state of crime and criminal activities, has arrested some murder suspects and other individuals for various offences ranging from criminal conspiracy to armed robbery and car snatching.
May 2, 2015, at Doruwa Vwang village in Shendam Local Government Area of the state, one Ponjue Domsing killed his father, Mr. Domsing, for refusing to buy a motorcycle for him as promised. The investigation has been completed and the suspect will soon appear in court when court resumes from strike.
Also on May 4, 2015, there was a report from Bukuru Division that one Christopher Vincent was stabbed to death by Mondam Pam and dumped his body by the roadside along Zawan Road. Detectives arrested the deceased’s girlfriend, Magdaline Fidelis, and upon interrogation, she confessed that the deceased was killed by Monday Pam over misunderstanding between them in her house.”
Source: Punch
Australian authorities issued a warning about cheap, non-compliant USB-style chargers after a young woman died from apparent electrocution while using a laptop and possibly a smart phone.
The 28-year-old was found wearing headphones and with her computer in her lap with burns on her chest and ears at a home in Gosford, north of Sydney.
Police are still investigating the circumstances of the death but the Department of Fair Trading, which has assisted with the case, suggested a sub-standard mobile phone charger could be to blame.
The woman, whom reports said was from the Philippines but had recently become an Australian citizen, had headphones plugged into her laptop, which was connected to a power socket to charge.
"The phone was also plugged into a USB-style charger. That charger had failed," Lynelle Collins from the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading said.
"Somehow power from that charger has connected to her body. Whether she had it (the phone) to her ear or was holding it in her hand, we don't know."
Collins said ideally people should avoid using their mobile phones while the devices were charging, but in any case they should avoid non-approved chargers.
"We are trying to alert people to the concern that sometimes when you buy really cheap chargers, they aren't compliant with... (safety) standards," she said.
Fair Trading said it had removed a number of unapproved and non-compliant USB-style chargers, travel adaptors and power boards from sale in Sydney after the death.
They said the devices did not meet essential safety requirements and were often made of inferior plastics and other insulation materials.
"These devices pose a serious risk of electrocution or fire," Fair Trading commissioner Rod Stowe said in a statement.
Maximum penalties for selling devices that fail Australian standards are Aus$87,500 (US$82,500) and/or two years imprisonment for an individual and a Aus$875,000 fine for a corporation.
The woman's death is the only known fatality in Australia potentially linked with the chargers, but a report from China in 2013 suggested a woman was electrocuted while making a call on a phone that was charging.
AFP
AYOMIDE omo egba is here again with another dope songGYRATION, this song will blow your mind off 
When Michael Jackson died on June 25th 2009 at the age of 50, his estate was bankrupt, but in the 6 years since his passing, a fortune has been made under his name.
According to TMZ
The estate has grossed nearly $2 billion since MJ's death. The money comes from the movies "This is It," the Cirque show "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour," 50 million albums sold and various other ventures.
After expenses, that $2 bil gets whittled down to around $800m- which is a very good return.But the $800 mil gets significantly cut by taxes-we're told to around $450 mil.
MJ's debts at the time of his death were around $500 million, so just on those 2 numbers the estate approaches being in the black.
But there are other ventures, like Sony, where the estate generates a lot of cash.
As for Michael's kids, there's a trust where millions gets distributed as they get older.
Our sources familiar with the financials tell TMZ ... if the estate were completely liquidated today, each kid would get around $100 million.
