A WOMAN who stabbed her baby girl to death seconds after she was born has been found guilty of murder for a second time.

During her first trial at Preston Crown Court in June 2017 a jury heard how Rachel Julie Tunstill stabbed her daughter Mia Kelly 15 times in the bathroom of the Burnley flat she shared with the baby’s father, Ryan Kelly, in January 2017.

Tunstill, 28, denied murder on the basis of diminished responsibility, but was found guilty by a jury and jailed for life by trial judge Mr Justice William Davis and told she would have to serve a minimum of 20 years before being eligible for parole.

But the conviction was quashed last year by High Court appeal judges who said the indictment put to the jury should have contained infanticide as an alternative verdict to murder.

Infanticide is the deliberate killing of a child under 12 months by a mother who was ‘disturbed by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child’.

However she stood trial for a second time at Liverpool Crown Court over seven weeks where a jury took around five hours to unanimously find her guilty of Mia’s murder.

The court heard how Tunstill delivered baby Mia alone in the bathroom of her flat in Wellington Court, Burnley as her then partner Ryan Kelly played Xbox in the next room.

Mr Kelly, who had been in a relationship with Tunsill for nine years, did not suspect his partner was giving birth and thought she was going through the motions of a miscarriage she claimed she had suffered six weeks earlier.

She used a pair of scissors to stab the tiny baby before wrapping her body in two plastic carrier bags and dumping the body in the kitchen bin.

Speaking after the case, Det Ch Insp Gareth Willis said: “This was a truly horrifying and callous killing of a defenceless newborn baby by her mother; her source of life and who should have been her source of love.

“What is worse is that a totally innocent man, still coming to terms with the realisation he had a daughter and that she had died, was questioned by police because Tunstill lied about the fact she had killed the baby stating that it was stillborn. She has still never admitted why she killed Mia.

“My thoughts remain with Mia’s father and her family who have not only had to deal with their loss, they have also had to sit through two trials, listening in great detail to what she was subjected to. They have conducted themselves with great dignity and I hope this now gives them some comfort that the legal side of things have come to an end.

“Lastly, I would like to pass on my gratitude to the jury in this retrial and also the previous trial, for their careful consideration of the case. Also, I must say thanks to witnesses who have had to go through giving distressing evidence twice, as well as the police officers and staff who worked on this difficult and upsetting enquiry, seeking justice a second time for Mia.”

Tunstill will be sentenced by Mr Justice Timothy King at noon tomorrow.