THE little girl known only as Baby Lara could have been alive when she was plunged head first into a specially moulded concrete block.

The horrific suggestion was made by one of the expert witnesses at an inquest this week which concluded that the still-unidentified baby girl had been unlawfully killed.

Home office pathologist Dr Alison Armour said there were black particles in her pharynx which “may indicate that she was alive when she was placed into the concrete”.

There was also food in the baby’s throat, indicating she had either just eaten or had vomited before being put into her hand-made concrete tomb.

The baby was placed, naked, into a home-made pillow case and put headfirst into a 12 by 7.5 by 9.5 inch concrete block, made specially for her size. Tests show that it was constructed between five and 15 years ago.

Dr Armour added: “We do not know how this baby died. There is evidence of non-accidental injury and trauma.”

The harrowing all-day hearing heard that the child, who was aged four to six months, had suffered unspeakable cruelty during her short life. She had been badly beaten, suffering a fractured skull, bruising and showing signs of old injuries that had healed. She had also suffered agonising pain from a large, untreated gum abscess, which had effectively broken her jaw.

Dr Armour concluded: “The baby girl was the victim of sexual abuse.” But a second expert, Dr Adrian Bianchi, did not agree and a third, Dr Anna Kelsey, was uncertain.

The inquest came almost three years after the remains of the baby girl, code-named Lara by police and whose true identity remains a mystery, were found in the concrete.

Graeme Wood, 39, came across it on September 11, 2002, as he cleared rubble from the derelict garage he had bought at Glenfield Place, Barepot.

The inquest made uncomfortable listening for the families of the late Sheila and Joseph Thwaites, whose secret, adulterous affair, illegitimate children and links to Baby Lara, were laid bare.

The couple came to the forefront of the investigation during DNA testing.

The fact that West Cumberland Hospital retained the sample slides from the death of Sheila Thwaites in 1988 was the most important clue that provided a near-perfect match proving who was tragic Lara’s mother.

Coroner John Taylor accepted expert evidence from forensic scientist Dr Jonathan Whittaker that the DNA showed a clear link suggesting Lara was a sister to both Anne Chadwick and her sister Yvonne Mahaffy, from Whitehaven.

Mr Taylor said after the inquest that it was a “truly dreadful case”. He quoted directly from Dr Whittaker’s evidence that “the findings should be viewed as providing evidence supporting the assertion that Lara is the child of the late Sheila and Joseph Thwaites, in other words the natural sister to Anne Chadwick and Yvonne Mahaffy. It does not, however, prove this relationship.” But he went on to state in his report that the chances of this not being the case were so remote, the odds against it were 265,000 to one.

Sheila and Joseph Thwaites had been having a secret affair while Mr Thwaites, a former miner and taxi driver, was still married to his first wife, Mary. The affair produced their two daughters, Anne, now 43, and Yvonne, 30. The couple married in 1977 after Mary died.

Ronald Thwaites, 67, Joseph’s son from his first marriage, was asked if he had ever been physically abused by his parents. “No,” he said, “quite the reverse. My father was the most honest, hard-working, generous man I have ever met in my life.

“As a child he was severely abused and regularly beaten by his stepmother for no other reason than he was not her son. He used to tell me about this and he always said he would never stand by and see a child treated the way he was.”

Anne Chadwick and Yvonne Mahaffy also came to their parents’ defence when asked if they had been abused, saying their parents were incapable of hurting anyone.

The coroner found that Lara had died as a result of unlawful killing. Her death will now be registered and her remains released for burial. She will not be known as Lara on her death certificate – simply “unidentified female infant”.

Det Chief Insp Carter said that, as Lara was a child of the community, the community would now be involved in laying her to rest.