Prosecutor appealing desecration of corpse aspect of Suure-Lähtru baby case ruling

The Prosecutor's Office Western District is appealing the first-tier Pärnu County Court ruling on the Suure-Lähtru baby case.
The case involves the killing of an infant, whose body was found February 5, 2024, in the village of the same name, after a family pet dog had retrieved the baby's corpse; the prosecutor is appealing the aspect of the judgment concerning desecration of a corpse.
In February this year, Pärnu County Court found Kairi Kuusemaa guilty of the murder of her infant, but dismissed the proceedings regarding the desecration of a corpse, finding that this might constitute a misdemeanor. "For this reason, the Western District Prosecutor's Office decided to challenge the county court's decision in the Tallinn Circuit Court," Senior Prosecutor Eliisa Sommer said.
In its appeal submitted to the second-tier circuit court, the prosecution argued that in the aspect concerning the desecration of a corpse, the prosecution had presented evidence that could allow for the accused to be found guilty of these acts.
According to the prosecution, evidence suggests that the woman took the naked body of the newborn to a location near a neighboring farm in a manner that had made it accessible to a dog.
In the prosecution's view, this constitutes treatment of the body which does not comply with generally accepted customs. "In this way, the deceased's honor, as the remaining part of their human dignity, was damaged," the prosecution's report stated.
Since the county court ruled that the accused had given birth unattended, with no one aware of that fact, the prosecution argued that it was only the accused who could have taken the deceased infant's body out of the farm complex.
"Based on the accused's behavior before, during, and after childbirth, this confirms, in the prosecution's view, the accused's intention — to render it impossible for anyone to ever find out about her newborn child," the prosecution stated.
As a result, the prosecution is requesting Tallinn Circuit Court to partly annul the Pärnu County Court decision and to sentence the accused to an additional six months in prison for the desecration of a corpse in the aftermath of the slaying, forming a combined sentence.
On February 20, 2025, a Pärnu County Court judge found Kairi Kuusemaa guilty of the murder of her child and sentenced her to three years and nine months in prison.
The sentence began retroactively, on March 9 of the preceding year.
Immediately following the announcement of the verdict, Kuusemaa's defense attorney, Robert Sarv, stated that they would be appealing the decision with the circuit court.
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Editor: Mirjam Mäekivi, Andrew Whyte