French court sentences woman to nine years in prison for killing eight of her newborn children

Dominique Cottrez, 51, confessed to suffocating her children after secretly giving birth at her home near Lille

Dominique Cottrez, 51, appears in the courtroom of Douai, northern France, accused of multiple counts of first-degree murder of minors (Michel Spingler/AP)

A woman has been sentenced to nine years in prison for killing eight of her newborn children between 1989 and 2000.

A court in Douai, France sentenced Dominique Cottrez, 51, after the prosecution had asked for an 18-year term. The defence had argued for acquittal for the former health worker, due to her troubled mental state.

Cottrez confessed to suffocating her children after secretly giving birth at her home near Lille, subsequently burying the bodies in the garden of her parents’ home and her own home nearby in Villers-au-tertre.

Cottrez said she had previously had an incestuous relationship with her father and feared each baby could be his. She later admitted to making up the alleged relationship when tests showed the babies had been fathered by her husband.

She said she had managed to conceal her pregnancies from her doctor and her husband due to her weight.

The former nursing assistant, who is obese, also said she had battled with her weight as a child and was bullied at school.