A Japanese mum drowned four of her newborn babies in concrete-filled buckets and kept them in a closet for 20 years.
Mayumi Saito, 53, from the city of Neyagawa, confessed her grim crime to cops because she could no longer handle the guilt.
Human remains were found in four buckets in her flat, an Osaka police official said.
Saito said she hid the bodies between 1992 and 1997 because she was too poor to raise the children.
She told police she lives at the flat with her teenage son and has another son who has moved out.
Investigators, quoting the suspect, told Asahi Shimbun: “I gave birth to all of them at the place I used to live.
“I don’t think (my boyfriend) was aware of what I did. I brought the buckets to my current residence with my other belongings when I moved.
“I felt I would not be able to raise the children that I gave birth to, so I placed them in buckets and poured in cement.
“There was no one I could talk to about my conscience and I thought about killing myself.
“But I couldn’t commit suicide and leave my son who I live with behind.”
She was charged with abandoning bodies a day after she turned herself in at the police station.
In Japan criminal charges are often added as an investigation progresses.
Although Japan is the world’s third-largest economy, poverty remains a problem, especially among women.
Mums often struggle to get affordable daycare and mental health support.

source: thesun.co.uk