A French mother has been accused of strangling or smothering to death her six newborn babies.
Celine Lesage was arrested in October 2007 after her partner and father of one of the murdered babies discovered decomposing infant bodies stuffed in garbage bags in the basement of their apartment building.
The 38-year-old admitted on Monday to killing the six infants between 1999 and 2007, according to media reports.
She is said to have strangled two of her children with a cord and choked four others by placing her finger in their mouths.
Each of the babies had been delivered 'in secret', with Lesage 'putting the babies and their dirty clothes neatly in a sealed plastic bag and hiding them', according to Cherbourg prosecutor Michel Garrandaux.
She told the court the babies were alive when she murdered them.
If convicted of first degree murder she faces a life jail sentence, with no possibility of parole for 18 years.
Investigators have described Lesage as a shy woman with no apparent mental problems.
She claims she lived in fear of her ex-partner and father to five of the murdered babies.
A verdict is due on March 18.
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