Ongoing appeal to locate mother following death of baby in Notting Hill

Enquiries remain ongoing to locate the mother of a newborn baby boy, whose body was found in Notting Hill on Tuesday, 25 March.

Superintendent Owen Renowden, who leads policing in Kensington and Chelsea said:

"Local officers have worked through the night and continue enquiries this morning, to locate the mother of the baby.

"We were called at 12:46pm to All Saints Church near Talbot Road, following the discovery of a newborn baby in a shopping bag. This was a black Marks and Spencer’s bag with pictures of avocados on the side. The bag was discovered by a council refuse worker who immediately contacted police.

"Officers attended alongside colleagues from the London Ambulance Service but, very sadly, the baby was pronounced dead at the scene.

"We can now confirm that the baby was a boy and we believe that he was a newborn when he died.

"I want to praise the professionalism in particular of the local refuse worker and also the responding emergency services who I know will have been deeply affected by this incident yesterday.

"As shocking and tragic as this is, my priority remains the mother’s welfare and health.

"We are really worried about her wellbeing as she will have recently given birth. I know she will likely be feeling very frightened and going through an extremely difficult time.

"If you are the baby’s mother and see this today - I want to appeal directly to you to come forward to receive help and support. My priority is to help, and make sure you can receive medical assistance. You can do this at any time by attending any hospital, police station or by calling the emergency services.

"I also want to appeal this morning to anyone who may have information that can assist us to make contact. In particular if you saw anyone in the area with the Marks and Spencer’s bag or saw anything that you felt was unusual.

"I know the community here are concerned by what has happened and we will be continuing our close work with our partners to support local people. The neighbourhood policing teams will be remaining in this area over the coming days and we will also be available every Wednesday at our regular community drop-in at Thorpe Close.

"I want to end this morning by repeating my plea to the baby’s mother to come forward and to reassure her that our main thoughts are with her wellbeing and getting her any help that she may need."

Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 101 or at @MetCC quoting CAD1879 of 26 March.