A mother’s 25-year secret is exposed after DNA evidence links her to the newborn she killed and abandoned.

Joanne Sharkey spent 25 years carrying the weight of a terrible secret—until a DNA breakthrough exposed the truth. The 55-year-old from Liverpool has admitted to killing her newborn son in 1998 after concealing her pregnancy from her husband and everyone around her.

Sharkey was finally identified in 2023 when forensic investigators matched her older son’s DNA in a national database. Arrested alongside her husband, who had no idea he had fathered a second child, Sharkey told police she felt “relief” that her secret had finally come out.

Charged with murder, she later pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, with psychiatric experts confirming she had been suffering from severe post-natal depression at the time of the killing.

A Hidden Pregnancy and a Shocking Confession

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Sharkey, who worked as a housing benefits officer, hid her pregnancy for months, covering her growing belly with baggy clothing and withdrawing from friends and family.

Even her husband, Neil Sharkey, had no idea she was carrying their child. Their relationship had become distant, with work schedules keeping them apart like “ships in the night,” she later explained.

On the night of the birth, Sharkey went into labour alone in their Croxteth home. She later told police she had no clear memory of what happened, but believed she had covered the baby’s mouth to silence his cries.

The newborn, later named Callum by the local community, was found wrapped in bin bags near a theme park in Warrington. An autopsy revealed he had been suffocated with wads of tissue stuffed into his mouth.

The Long Search for Answers

At the time, hundreds of women were interviewed, and police even arrested some suspects based on family suspicions. But the case went cold, and Callum was buried after a funeral service arranged by the local community.

It wasn’t until 2023 that advances in forensic technology identified Sharkey through her older son’s DNA. When confronted by police, she made a shocking confession.

“I’m not [expletive] gonna deny nothing, it is what it is, isn’t it?” she was recorded telling her husband in the back of a patrol car. “I [expletive] did it.”

‘Extreme and Disabling’ Depression

Psychiatric experts agreed that Sharkey had suffered from severe post-natal depression, which had started after the birth of her first child in 1996.

Her mental state deteriorated further when she fell pregnant again, leading to what her defence described as “extreme and disabling” depressive symptoms.

Her husband, who described her as an “amazing mother” to their son, blamed himself for not recognising her suffering. Their son, now 28, also defended his mother, saying she had given him a wonderful childhood and that he would stand by her.

Awaiting Sentencing

Despite the harrowing details, Sharkey’s legal team has urged the court to suspend her sentence, arguing she has lived with the guilt for 26 years and suffered immense psychological distress.

“How much more punishment does Joanne Sharkey require?” her lawyer asked the judge.

The court has adjourned the sentencing due to lack of time, leaving Sharkey waiting to learn her fate.