Mother who stabbed her newborn baby to death with a pair of scissors after giving birth alone in the bathroom while her partner played Xbox is found dead in prison

• Rachel Tunstill died in HMP Styal yesterday, the Prison Service confirmed
• The circumstances surrounding her death are currently unknown 

A mother who stabbed her newborn baby to death with a pair of scissors and then placed her body in plastic bags before dumping it in a kitchen bin has been found dead in prison. 

Rachel Tunstill, 32, murdered her daughter Mia Kelly shortly after she gave birth alone in the bathroom of her flat in Burnley, Lancashire. Her partner had been playing Xbox in the next room during the January 2017 killing.

Tunstill was twice jailed for life for the murder of Mia – the second sentence being handed down in 2019.

She was originally found guilty of murder and jailed for a minimum of 20 years following a trial at Preston Crown Court in June 2017. But the conviction was quashed after an appeals court judge ruled the jury in the case should have been offered a verdict of infanticide to consider. 

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court found Tunstill guilty of murder following a retrial and was sentenced to life imprisonment and told to serve a minimum of 17 years before she could be considered for release. 

The Prison Service confirmed last night that Tunstill died in HMP Styal in Cheshire yesterday. The circumstances surrounding her death are currently unknown. 

Rachel Tunstill, 32, (pictured) killed her daughter Mia Kelly in January 2017. She was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment and told to serve a minimum of 17 years before she could be considered for release

The Prison Service confirmed last night that Tunstill died in HMP Styal (pictured) in Cheshire yesterday. The circumstances surrounding her death are currently unknown

A spokesperson said: ‘HMP Styal prisoner Rachel Tunstill died in custody on August 1, 2023. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.’

The court previously heard Tunstill, a psychology graduate and deputy manager at a residential home for people with mental health issues, had high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder. 

She had claimed she was unaware her pregnancy was virtually full-term and thought she was having a miscarriage at the flat she shared with her partner, forklift driver Ryan Kelly, in Wellington Court, Burnley. She had been 37 to 38 weeks pregnant at the time.

The jury was told Tunstill had been charged with murder but jurors were able to consider alternatives of manslaughter, manslaughter with diminished responsibility or infanticide.

The defence said Tunstill’s balance of mind was disturbed in the period following the birth on the evening of January 14 ,2017 and that she suffered ‘an acute stress reaction’. 

In the weeks leading up to delivery, Tunstill carried out internet searches for terms including ‘how to end a pregnancy late’.

She also searched for information on notorious killer Mick Philpott, who murdered six of his own children in a house fire, and the court heard she had said she was interested in how somebody described as a ‘psychopath’ could have cried on television about the deaths before his guilt was revealed. 

The court was told that since being in prison Tunstill had reported hearing voices and claimed they told her she was like Rose West, a serial killer who collaborated with her husband in the torture and murder of at least nine young women between 1973 and 1987.

Mia Kelly’s body was dumped in a bin at the couple’s home in Burnley (pictured)

At the time of sentencing the judge, Mr Justice King, said: ‘This must have been a sustained and frenzied attack on a victim who because of her age was particularly vulnerable. Her duty to her newborn baby was to cradle and comfort her – not to stab her to death.

‘There was here in my judgement concealment of the body, albeit short-lived and in addition there was undoubtedly the indignity which was wrought upon the body by disposing of it in the way she did.’

He said that the circumstances of the killing on January 14, 2017, were ‘particularly harrowing’, adding: ‘What drove her to kill her baby in this way may never be known. She gave birth alone in the bathroom of the flat in Wellington Court, Burnley, she shared with Mr Ryan, her partner of nine years, to a full-term baby weighing six to seven pounds.

‘She called for a pair of scissors which Ryan brought to her and she then, unknown to her partner, used these scissors to stab her baby to death.’

She told him she was having a miscarriage and asked him for scissors before stabbing Mia 14 times just after she was born, it was said.

MailOnline has approached the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for a comment.

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