A woman has allegedly drowned her niece’s one-month-old son in a water tank after the baby’s father refused to sleep with her.

The crime took place at the baby’s father’s house in the Brazilian municipality of Nova Vicosa in the early hours of 28th November.

Maria Aparecida Monteiro Apolinario is alleged to have made the indecent proposal to the baby’s father while they were socialising with her niece and two other family members at a bar next door to the house while the newborn was asleep on the sofa.

After being rejected by the baby’s father, the 41-year-old allegedly entered the house on the pretext of using the bathroom. She reportedly emerged around 20 minutes later behaving strangely.

When baby’s mother entered the house, she did not find her newborn son where she had left him. She alerted everyone present, and they all started to look for the youngster apart from Apolinario, which raised suspicions.

During the frantic search, the baby’s mother noticed that a water tank in the yard was missing its lid. She peered inside and, to her horror, found her son floating motionless in the water.

She pulled the newborn out and an ambulance was called. First aid was performed on the baby, but the medical team was unable to revive him.

Accused of killing the newborn, Apolinario was taken to the police station in the nearby municipality of Teixeira de Freitas where she remains in custody having been charged with manslaughter.

Apolinario denies killing her young great-nephew and denies propositioning her niece’s husband.

She gave her version of events to local media, claiming that she did not even see the baby and that the baby’s father attacked her when she emerged from the bathroom.

She told local media: “When I got to the front door, my niece’s husband punched me and accused me of killing his son. I said ‘what son for God’s sake?’ I hadn’t even seen the baby.

“They said the baby was on the sofa, and the baby’s mother was just screaming that I had killed her son. How could I kill a child if I also have children? I don’t understand anything.

“They went into the residence and she came out with the baby all wet and said the baby was in the water tank. I wasn’t drunk, I don’t drink, I’m not in the habit.”

Responding to the accusation that she did not help to look for the baby, Apolinario said she was immediately accused of the crime upon leaving the bathroom and that she was beaten straight away by the baby’s father, who also broke her walking stick and left her lying on the floor.

Apolinario has claimed that the couple quarrelled after the husband discovered that he was not the baby’s biological father.

She said she does not know if her niece’s husband killed the baby or if it was the baby’s mother herself.

She told local media: “I just ask God to help me as soon as possible so I can get out of here.”

The investigation continues.

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