THE detective chief inspector who led the investigation into the death of newborn baby Mia described it as the worst case she has faced in 20 years in the job.

DCI Jill Johnston also revealed some officers are still receiving counselling.

However, the senior investigating officer stressed nothing can compare to the pain suffered by the family of baby Mia, who was stabbed to death on January 14.

DCI Johnston said the first officers sent to the scene knew nothing about what they were about to be confronted with.

She said: "Uniformed officers went to the home address of Rachel Tunstill not really knowing what they were about to find because the information she gave was contradictory to what medical staff were reporting.

"She said she had had an early miscarriage but clearly medical staff were concerned it was a full term baby.

"The staff that attended had very little information but there was a possibility there may be a new born baby alive somewhere."

Searches were carried out in external bins and then inside when Rachel's partner Ryan arrived home.

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Both were arrested shortly after on suspicion of concealing the birth of a baby but it was only after a post-mortem that the extent of the horrific injuries baby Mia had suffered became clear and they realised they were looking at a murder enquiry.

After five long days they charged Tunstill with murder.

"My role as senior investigating officer was to make sure that my staff were able to do the job we needed to do and to deal with it from a personal welfare point of view," DCI Johnston said.

"At my first briefing I asked staff if any of them had newborn babies, children or grandchildren and did not feel they could work on the enquiry. The impact of dealing with something like that if you have a newborn baby can be significant.

"Nobody did and I think what was clear was every police officer and staff member in the team wanted to be involved and wanted to do the right thing for baby Mia and that came through right the way through the case.

"They became very focused on understanding why and how she had died. The police took on the role of the voice of the child."

The team of 20 set about finding out as much as they could about the lives of Tunstall and her partner of nine years Ryan Kelly to try and understand why anybody would do such a horrific thing.

"We also had a dedicated welfare officer for the staff. She arranged a debriefing and ongoing support and counselling on understanding the impact that the incident would have.

"Some staff are still receiving welfare support.

"Some of the staff deal with difficult and upsetting things every day so this can just compound feelings of anxiety and stress. Everybody deals with it differently and it is being confident to ask for help and to talk about feelings.

"It is the most horrific case I have every worked on in 20 years of policing.

"It was a newborn baby who was completely defenceless and should have looked to her mum to protect her and love her.

"If she did not want a baby there were many options available to her, it did not need to end like this.

"It is a case that will stay with me and every officer that has been involved in it for the rest of their lives due to the tragic and sad nature of it."

DCI Johnstone said they had hoped Rachel would plead guilty and spare Mia's family the ordeal of a trial which meant Ryan had to give evidence.

"The family has conducted themselves tremendously. Ryan and other family members have conducted themselves with dignity and calm which must have been extremely difficult," she said.

"We as police have a job to do and our lives will move on. The family of Mia will not be able to move on."

To read the full story about the case read here