Twenty-four-year-old Lydia Binks had a problem. She was separated from her husband, who had custody of their two children. Then on March 1st, 1932, she had a child by Frederick Rushworth, a 27-year-old farm labourer.

When the baby arrived she was working at a holiday camp in Yorkshire, and living in one of the camp’s caravans. She was unattended at the birth, and the next day she did her work as usual. This situation continued for the next three weeks, during which she attended to her duties and looked after the baby as well, telling her employer that the child had been left with her by a friend.

But her boss made it clear that he wanted the baby removed, and on MARCH 25th she placed it in a basket and cycled seven miles with it to a spot where she had arranged to meet Rushworth. They then went to an isolated copse where Rushworth buried the child and the basket. When the body was subsequently recovered the baby was found to have been buried alive.

At the couple’s trial Rushworth claimed he thought the child was dead when it was brought to him, but the jury found his story incredible. Both defendants were convicted of murder and sentenced to death, although the jury recommended mercy in the case of the young mother.

Rushworth was hanged, but Lydia Binks was reprieved, her sentence commuted to life imprisonment.