OTTAWA -- Canada's top court has upheld the acquittal of a woman who left her newborn in the bathroom of a Saskatchewan Walmart after giving birth there.
The woman, identified in court documents as A.D.H., said she did not know she was pregnant when, in May 2007, she went to a Prince Albert Walmart bathroom feeling unwell. She gave birth to a baby she claims she thought was dead, and left the store shortly afterwards.
Store staff found the infant in the toilet and rescued it.
A.D.H. was charged with child abandonment, but was acquitted in 2009 because the judge believed she hadn't meant to "abandon" the baby -- a crime that requires awareness that an action was liable to endanger the life of a child.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that the verdict will stand.
