A heartbroken mother-of-two was arrested on suspicion of murder after miscarrying a baby she did not even know she was expecting.
Laura Bull fainted three times after waking up in a pool of blood in the early hours of November 4.
Miss Bull, who did not know she was pregnant, miscarried a boy aged between 18-22 weeks old on November 3. Jack (right), an electrician, said the couple only found out the sex of their stillborn child after reading their own story in a local newspaper
She miscarried a boy aged between 18-22 weeks in the bathroom of the family home she shares with partner Jack Walker and was rushed to hospital with a collapsed womb.
While being treated, the 29-year-old, from Braintree, Essex, told nurses that her baby's body could still be in her bathroom.
Police and forensic officers headed round and, after investigating, arrested the couple the following day on suspicion of murder.
They then spent a night in the cells at Chelmsford police station.
Officers finally made sense of the traumatic experience and dropped the charge 24 hours later.
However, instead of scrapping it completely, they only downgraded it to the lesser offence of concealing the birth of a child, bailing the couple until February pending further enquiries.
The pair now say their lives have been made a 'living nightmare' by the experience - which has left them unable to bury the child's body and even turned their neighbours against them.
Miss Bull said: 'I had stomach pains on Sunday and Monday [November 3], so Jack went to the shops and bought me some tablets for stomach cramps.
'Then later that Monday night, about 6 or 7pm, I actually started feeling much better.
'But then at about four in the morning on the Tuesday, I dived on top of Jack in bed to wake him up because I was bleeding a lot and I had fainted three times in the bathroom.'
Before attending the hospital, the pair cleaned their blood soaked toilet to avoid worrying their children.
'There was a lot of blood on the floor and I didn't want the kids to see,' said Miss Bull.
However, when police attended their home, it is believed they considered that to be suspicious - and accused the pair of murder.
That charge has since been changed but the whole traumatic ordeal has been made even worse by the police involvement, the couple claim.
Since the incident, they say they have been unable to sleep, describing the situation as 'living in a nightmare'.
Mr Walker, an electrician, said the couple only found out the sex of their stillborn child after reading their own story in a local newspaper.
He added that he and Laura had done nothing wrong and only tried to cover evidence of the miscarriage for the sake of their four year-old daughter and 16 month-old son.
Mr Walker said: 'We didn't want our son to touch anything because he picks up stones and thinks they're sweets, so we covered everything up.
'I feel as if we are being treated like animals. We haven't had the body returned to us so we can't even hold a funeral.
'I had no way of contacting the kids. I didn't know what to think at the time. We don't even know if we can have children again, we haven't been told anything.'
Former care-worker, Miss Bull has now stated that the family of four may have to move from their home as their neighbours have refused to talk to them since the arrest.
dailymail cullage.
