Mary Ann Gibbins (Jail)

Mary Ann Gibbins was sentenced to death for the murder of her 16 month old child but reprieved. Her appeal had been dismissed.

The body of her 16-month-old boy was found in Holderness Drain on 13 May 1947.

The boy was initially thought to have been aged between 2 and 3 and was fully dressed and was thought to have been in the water for some time, probably between five and ten days. There were no visible marks of violence about the body.

The body was found by a junior draughtsman who lived in Cholmley Street in Hull in the Holderness Drain near to Hedon Road, Hull. He then informed the police and helped them to pull it out.

House to house searched were made in the Southcoates estate area and a check taken on all women and children missing.

The police said that they also extended their enquiries to Nottinghamshire and Northumberland and said that a description of the child's body and clothing was given nationwide circulation.

At the inquest the police advanced the theory that the child and his mother might have entered the water together and that the mother's body had floated into the Humber and had been washed away whilst the child’s body had been carried into the tidal waters of the drain.

A doctor said, 'I am quite sure death was due to drowning. It is possible he was drowned elsewhere and then placed in the drain'.

It was noted at the inquest that the child appeared to have been blind from birth.

The child was described as weighing 26lbs, about 1 year six months old, 31 inches long, well nourished, with brown hair.

When the coroner summed up he said, 'It will probably strike you as remarkable that nobody has laid any information that a child is missing, and I think that after taking the hole of the facts into consideration you can only arrive at one verdict, that of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown'.

On Tuesday 8 November 1949 Mary Ann Gibbins was brought back to Hull for questioning over the child's death and she was convicted of the childs murder on 24 February 1950 and sentenced to death but reprieved.