Four people appear in court accused of murdering newborn baby
Four people accused of murdering a newborn girl who suffered 33 wounds in 15 separate stabbings have appeared in court.
The baby’s mother, Andrea Skopova, 20, appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday with Peter Horvath Jnr, 19, Peter Horvath Snr, 38, and Nina Horvathova, 37.
The defendants, who are all Slovakian nationals, are charged with the murder of a newborn named in the charges as Baby S.
The baby was named as Maria Skopova at an inquest which opened in Sheffield earlier this week.
No pleas were entered by the defendants during Monday’s hearing and a further hearing was fixed for December 14.
Last month, a court was told that the baby’s body was found on top of a washing machine in an outhouse at an address in the Wincobank area of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on August 30.
Horvath Jnr, Horvath Snr and Horvathova, all of Holywell Heights, Sheffield, and Skopova, of Robey Street, Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, and perverting the course of justice by cleaning the scene of the alleged crime.
A 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named, also appeared at the same hearing on Friday charged with the same perverting the course of justice offence.
All five defendants sat in the glass-fronted dock, watched by members of their family in the packed public gallery balcony above.
They were flanked by seven security guards and three Slovak interpreters.
A trial date of April 12 next year has already been fixed, and the trial is expected to last six to seven weeks.
The defendants were all remanded in custody by Judge Jeremy Richardson KC.
When the defendants appeared in magistrates’ court last month, a prosecutor said Skopova was the baby’s mother and the father is unknown.
Skopova is the girlfriend of the defendant Horvath Jnr, who is the son of the other two adult defendants, the court heard, but he is not believed to be the father.
Baby Maria was found wrapped in a towel and in a blue bag in an outbuilding at an address in Holywell Heights.
The prosecutor said she had suffered 33 wounds from 15 “separate stabbings”.
He said she suffered wounds to her “face and torso – front and back”.