Nurse who killed eight of her babies claims they were result of incestual 'affair' with her dad

Dominique Cottrez

A nurse who killed eight of her newborn babies has claimed they were a result of an incestual 'affair' with her father.

Dominique Cottrez, 51, has admitted to ‘systematically strangling and burying’ her newborn children in France’s worst ever case of infanticide.

She tried to evade murder charges by claiming the crimes all took place more than ten years ago - so the ‘statute of limitations’ for prosecution had expired.

But court ruled she must stand trial because her hiding the bodies meant it was impossible to know whether a crime had been committed during the ten-year time limit.

The case began in northern city Douai today as Cottrez denied multiple counts of first-degree murder.

She faces the rest of her life in jail if found guilty.

She told investigators the pregnancies were the result of a long 'affair' with her father Oscar Lempereur which began when she was a child.

The bodies were discovered four years ago at a former Cottrez family home in the village of Villiers-sur-Tertre.

While digging a new pond, the new owners found human bones in the garden.

They alerted police who found the remains of two children which had been there since the Cottrez family moved out in 1991.

After tracking Dominique and husband Pierre-Marie Cottrez to another house just half a mile away, they found the bodies of six more children buried in the garden in black bin liners.

(Daily Mirror)