Greece charges Briton with strangling baby

A Greek prosecutor has charged a 20-year-old British woman with strangling her newborn baby after giving birth in a hotel room on the Mediterranean island of Crete, a court official said on Wednesday.

The prosecutor handed the charges to the woman, identified by police as Leah Andrews, late on Tuesday in a hospital in the Cretan capital Heraklion, where she was being treated for severe blood loss after giving birth unassisted early on Monday.

"Late yesterday evening, the prosecutor announced criminal charges to the 20-year-old British girl for premeditated killing," the court official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

Andrews has been given until Thursday to testify before an investigating judge, and under Greek law could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

The court official said that in this case many extenuating circumstances would be taken into account and prosecutors would not seek the maximum penalty.

Andrews is expected to be discharged from hospital on Wednesday, the official said.

Two other British women who were sharing the hotel room with Andrews in the popular tourist resort of Malia will not be charged in connection with the case, the official said. Police said they were her sister and a friend.

Police were notified after the woman's two companions rushed her to hospital in Heraklion, some 30 km (19 miles) west of Malia, to receive treatment after she gave birth to the baby at the hotel.

Police found the dead baby in the hotel room with sheets around its neck and covering its face, a spokesman said. A coroner's report concluded the child was born healthy but had died of suffocation.

Britons make up about one fifth of the 15 million tourists who visit Greece every year.