A mother who stabbed her newborn baby girl to death using a pair of scissors has been jailed for life following a retrial.

Rachel Tunstill, 28, has been found guilty of the murder of her newborn baby daughter Mia for the second time after the original conviction in June 2017 was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

At the appeal in London, Lord Justice Treacy ruled that the jury in the case should have been offered a verdict of infanticide to consider.

However, following a retrial at Liverpool Crown Court which lasted seven weeks, Tunstill was found guilty and given a life sentence with a minimum of 17 years.

Tunstill gave birth to baby Mia Kelly on the evening of Saturday January 142017 in the bathroom of her home in Burnley, Lancashire.

She had told her partner that she was suffering a miscarriage and despite offering to get her medical help, she declined and said she would handle the situation herself.

Each time he went to check on her, she repeated that she didn’t need any assistance.

She asked for a pair of scissors but did not say what these were for. These are believed to have been used to inflict a total of 15 stab wounds to baby Mia.

On Monday January 16, two days after having Mia, Tunstill attended Burnley General Hospital for medical attention but told nurses there that she had just suffered a miscarriage at nine weeks pregnant. Upon being examined, it was apparent that she had given birth.

Police were notified and attended the hospital. Tunstill told an officer that she had only discovered she was pregnant on Wednesday January 11 and that the baby was stillborn and she did not know whether it was a boy or girl.

Officers attended her address and found baby Mia’s body in the kitchen bin concealed within a bag.

It was discovered the baby had been born alive but had died after being stabbed multiple times.

Tunstill and a 30-year-old man, the baby’s father, were both arrested on suspicion of murder. He was subsequently released without charge after detectives satisfied themselves that he had no involvement in Mia’s death and he did not know she was expecting his child.

He and Mia’s wider family continue to be supported by specially trained officers.

In the weeks leading up to the birth Tunstill, a deputy manager at a residential home for people with mental health issues, carried out internet searches for terms including “how to end a pregnancy late”.

Her defence said her balance of mind was disturbed in the period after she gave birth and that she suffered “an acute stress reaction”. The court also heard Tunstill had high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder.

The jury in the retrial was able to consider alternative charges to murder – manslaughter, manslaughter with diminished responsibility or infanticide.

Tunstill was originally sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years, before the Court of Appeal judge ruled her conviction unsafe on the basis that the first jury was not allowed to consider charges other than murder.

Speaking after the verdict, Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Willis from Lancashire Constabulary’s Force Major Investigation Team, 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 has come to an end.”