A WOMAN has appeared in court charged with hiding the dead body of her child in the garden of a Somerset home.

Emma Marie Sworld, 31, of Eastfield, Bruton, appeared in the dock before Somerset Magistrates, sitting at Yeovil.

It was alleged that on December 12, 2016 at 61, St Georges Avenue, Yeovil, she endeavoured to conceal the birth of a child of which she had been delivered by the secret disposition of the dead body of the said child.

Her arrest followed the grim discovery of human remains hidden in a garden at the address in Yeovil back in 2016 after a tip-off to the police that a stillborn child might be buried at the location.

A police spokesman confirmed that the investigation was unconnected to the current tenant of the property.

Sworld did not enter a plea to the offence and the magistrates said it was so serious that she must be sent to Taunton Crown Court to be dealt with.

The case was adjourned until September 7, when the defendant will appear at a pre trial hearing at Taunton and in the meantime she was released on unconditional bail.