A MOTHER dumped the baby she just delivered herself on a freezing doorstep in a Tesco carrier bag, a court heard.

The baby girl was lucky to survive after being found suffering from hypothermia.

Police never discovered who the mother was until she was arrested six years later and matched to the infant through her DNA."

The woman, from Camberwell, southeast London, had a son with her long term partner and got pregnant during a brief fling.

She delivered the tiny girl as her son slept in another room before putting her in a bag.

"In February 2009 this lady left the child in a carrier bag on the doorstep of a house in Flaxman Road, Camberwell," Mr Whitehouse said.

"She was found at 8am, suffering from hypothermia."

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Mr Whitehouse said the February of 2009 was "particularly cold" and the baby was lucky not to have more serious physical effects.

Prosecutor Martin Whitehouse told Inner London Crown Court the case was "very sad" and like a "chapter from Dickens".

Last year the mother, aged in her 20s, was arrested for her part in a fraud after putting her bank details into a bogus charitable website.

Her account was used to swindle £27,000 out of an elderly woman in Kent.

The court heard she denies involvement and no charges have been brought against her.

"By coincidence, last year, the defendant was arrested on a completely different matter of fraud allegations," said Mr Whitehouse.

"And of course there were fingerprints and DNA left in the carrier bag and in clothes in which the child was wrapped."

Siobhan Molloy, defending, said the mother was depressed and faced "difficult circumstances" when she abandoned the child.

"She was in denial when she was pregnant, you may ask why she did not go to hospital, she was not in her right mind," she said.

"The child is now hopefully living a blissfully ignorant life."

The baby girl was fostered and later adopted and the mother had not contact since.

She brought a letter to court for social services to give the child when she turns 18.

The court heard how the woman often thinks of her daughter especially on her birthday.

Judge Mr Recorder Peter Rouch QC  told the woman: "At the time, according to a psychiatrist, you were suffering from depression and in the circumstances you did not face up to the pregnancy, you were in denial."

The judge spared her jail and instead handed her a community order for 18 months.

She was convicted under Section 1.1 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 for wilfully abandoning a person under 16.

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