Mother jailed after drowning five of her newborn babies and hiding them in a freezer

Births and deaths believed to have taken place over a ten year period

The townhall in Louchats, France (Wikimedia )

A mother has been jailed for eight years after drowning five of her newborn babies and hiding them in a freezer.

Romana Canete, 37, gave birth in her bathtub and then left them to die in the water at her home in Louchats, France.

One of her two teenage daughters found one of the babies in a bag which had been placed in a freezer.

After telling her father, Juan Carlos, who alerted the police, the other bodies were located.

The births and deaths are believed to have taken place over a ten year period and Mr Carlos said he was unaware of the pregnancies, according to the BBC.

Addressing the court Canete begged for forgiveness from her family.

“First I'd like to beg the babies' forgiveness - I'll be able to do that when I leave prison and go to the cemetery,” she said.

"And I beg forgiveness from my family, my daughters who have lived through this pain.

"I had no other option; I had so rejected the idea of pregnancy that for me, mentally, these children could not exist."

The discoveries were made in 2015 and Canete has already spent three years in prison.