A court in the French town of Coutances sentenced a woman to 15 years in jail for murdering her six newborn babies.

Celine Lesage, aged 38, admitted to killing the six babies between 1999 and 2007. They were all killed directly after birth. The bodies were put in plastic bags and hidden in the basement of the building she lived in. The case came to light in October 2007 after her partner, and father of one of the murdered infants, went to the cellar to fetch something and was alarmed by a terrible smell.

Lesage told the court she killed the children because she was terrified of her former partner - father of five of the murdered infants - and claimed that he was violent. It is still not clear how she managed to conceal six pregnancies and births.