A CARE worker has been jailed for life after being convicted of murdering her newborn baby daughter.

Mr Justice King, sitting at Liverpool Crown Court, recommended that Rachel Tunstill, 26, should serve a minimum 17 years before being considered for parole.

Tunstill, from Burnley, repeatedly stabbed Mia Kelly with a pair of scissors just moments after she was born at her home in Wellington Court on January 14, 2017.

She then wrapped her tiny body in two plastic carrier bags before dumping it in a kitchen bin.

Her partner Ryan Kelly was engrossed in playing a video game, in the next room.

Jurors have now found Tunstill of murder following a retrial, after her original conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Law lords ruled that a verdict of infanticide, where a mother kills her child 'by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth', should have been offered to the jury.  Two out of three experts had supported an infanticide defence at her original trial.

Tunstill, who was deputy manager of Benjamin House care home in Burnley and had a masters degree in forensic psychology, delivered the baby in a toilet.

She claimed she thought she had had a miscarriage and could find no signs of life with the baby.

Her defence team also said she was suffering from psychiatric problems at the time of the incident.

Det Ch Insp Jill Johnston, speaking after the original conviction, said: "This poor child should have been able to look to Rachel Tunstill for the protection and love of a parent.

"Instead this defenceless baby found herself subjected to the dreadful injuries which sadly caused her death."

An NSPCC spokesman said: “This is a terrible case in which Tunstill’s inexplicable actions ended the incredibly short life of her own daughter.

“This should have been a time of love and nurture for Mia, not pain and suffering.

“All babies depend entirely upon the care they receive from those around them and we all have a responsibility to look out for a child’s welfare.

“The NSPCC’s helpline is available for any adult with concerns about a child, on 0808 8005000 or help@nspcc.org.uk.”