Image reveals Kabou calmly pushing her 15-month-old daughter to the beach where the toddler died 
 
 A mum who placed her toddler trapped in her pushchair in front of a rising tide to drown said being a mother was 'incompatible' with her love life. 
 
 Fabienne Kabou, a 39-year-old Frenchwoman, told a court: "I put an end to her life because it was easier that way". 
 
 She now faces life in prison for the premeditated murder of 15-month-old Adelaide on a beach in northern France. 
 
 The little girl’s lifeless body was still tied into her pushchair when she was discovered by prawn fishermen the next day. 
 
 After a ten day search, police using DNA from the pram eventually traced Kabou to the home in Paris she shared with a 63-year-old boyfriend Michel Lafon, where she was arrested. 
 
 Kabou, a philosophy student, told police she took the drastic move after deciding motherhood was 'incompatible' with her love life with Mr Lafon, a sculptor. 
 
 Getty Fabienne Kabou told a court she killed her child to 'make life easier' (court sketch) 
 
 The killing in the northern resort town of Berck-sur-Mer on November 19 2013 sparked outrage as hundreds took to the streets in a so-called ‘White March’ demonstration against child cruelty. 
 
 Kabou told a court, St-Omer Assizes, today: "I put an end to her life because it was easier that way. 
 
 "Everything went perfectly. It was as if I felt carried along, I just couldn't say stop." 
 
 Read more: Pictured: Mother calmly pushing daughter to beach where she left her to drown in rising tide 
 
 Her defence barrister, Fabienne Roy-Nansion, meanwhile insisted that Kabou "sees her act as we all see it, that is to say, something utterly horrible, and she considers herself indefensible". 
 
 Getty Fabienne Kabou admitted to police that having a child was 'incompatible' with her love life (court sketch) 
 
 Kabou, who is of Senegalese origin, is from a prosperous Catholic family and of "remarkable intelligence", said Ms Roy-Nansion. 
 
 Ms Roy-Nansion read out a psychological report saying: "Her psychological status is largely influenced by cultural references and an individual history linked to Senegalese witchcraft that radically altered her view of the world." 
 
 Paul Bensussan, a court psychiatrist, said: "Infanticide committed by the mother is often underpinned by a psychiatric pathology. 
 
 Getty The headstone placed on the grave of Adelaide has been covered with toy animals by well-wishers 
 
 "In most cases the mother is deeply depressed and sees her act as a kind of 'altruistic suicide', saving her child from suffering." 
 
 Adelaide was born in the couple's home and was never registered. No one close to the couple, not even Kabou's mother, knew of her existence. 
 
 Ms Roy-Nansion said the pregnancy "was a happy surprise for her, not necessarily for the father. I think she felt deeply alone". 
 
 Getty The beach in northern France where little Adelaide drowned 
 
 Kabou has told investigators she chose the vast, windswept beach at Berck-sur-Mer to kill Adelaide because it sounded like a ‘sad place’. 
 
 Michel Lafon meanwhile said Fabienne Kabou had been 'a magnificent' mother to her child. 
 
 The case continues. ||||| A French woman who left her baby daughter to drown on a beach blamed “witchcraft” when she went on trial for murder on Monday. 
 
 Fabienne Kabou, 39, who was described as having “remarkable intelligence … but subject to irrational beliefs”, travelled to Berck-sur-Mer with her only child, Adélaïde, in November 2013. 
 
 Kabou checked into a hotel and asked locals about the tides before reportedly breastfeeding the child on the beach that night and leaving her as the sea came in and temperatures dropped to below freezing. The girl’s body was discovered by a prawn fisherman the following day. 
 
 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest A court artist’s sketch of Fabienne Kabou on the first day of her trial. Photograph: Benoit Peyrucq/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Kabou told police she had chosen the town, on France’s Channel coast between Calais and Dieppe, because “even the name sounded sad”. Berck sounds like “yuck” in French. 
 
 
 
 According to French press reports, Kabou told investigators she walked on to the beach in the moonlight. “I stopped at one point. She gave a small jump as if she’d just woken up. She was looking for my breast, I gave it to her. I remained standing and I clutched her against me and then, I don’t know, I said: ‘No, no, no.’ I couldn’t stop saying ‘no’, I don’t know why. I cried. It was as if I was saying to someone: ‘I can’t do something like that,’ but I did it.” 
 
 She continued: “I saw the spray and I must have left Ada at five metres, perhaps two. In any case, she would have drowned straight away. I don’t know how fast the tide came in but it was very close. I put her down, I spoke to her, I told her I was sorry. She was fine, I think. She didn’t feel in danger, I was next to her, on my knees. I gave her a long hug … she wasn’t exactly asleep but she was calm … I don’t know how long I stayed there, saying I was sorry, talking to her. Then I turned on my heels and I ran.” The next day Kabou returned to Paris by train. 
 
 Kabou, of Senegalese origin, told the court of her well-off childhood in Dakar. She was described as a brilliant student. She is said to have an IQ of 130, well above average. She moved to France in 1995, where she abandoned an architecture course after two years and embarked on a philosophy degree. She also fell in love with a painter and sculptor 30 years her senior, Michel Lafon. 
 
 She terminated two pregnancies before giving birth to Adélaïde alone at the art studio she shared with Lafon. She had not consulted a doctor during the pregnancy and neither parent registered the birth with the authorities, so there was no official record of Adélaïde, who was named after her grandmother. 
 
 Kabou told detectives she heard voices persecuting her and evil forces that drove her to kill her daughter. 
 
 “In 2011 I fell pregnant with Adélaïde, she was born in August and I ended up killing her 15 months after her birth,” she told the court in the north-eastern town of Saint-Omer. 
 
 “Witchcraft. That’s my default explanation because I have no other.” 
 
 Kabou said she had spent around €40,000 consulting “witchdoctors and healers” before leaving the child to die on the beach. 
 
 “Nothing makes sense in this story. What interest could I have I have in tormenting myself, lying, killing my daughter? I spoke of sorcery and I’m not joking. Even a stupid person would not do what I did.” 
 
 Kabou’s lawyer Fabienne Roy-Nansion asked her to explain the evil forces she felt had driven her to kill. 
 
 “For many years I struggled to wake up in the morning. My feet were paralysed. I had hallucinations, like seeing the walls that wouldn’t stop shaking,” Kabou said. 
 
 Court psychiatrist Paul Bensussan said her act was possibly triggered to post natal depression. The father took no interest in the child, according to court documents. 
 
 Kabou is on trial for premeditated murder and faces life in prison if convicted. The trial in Saint-Omer is expected to last a week. ||||| A French woman has gone on trial for premeditated murder after leaving her 15-month old daughter to die on a beach in Northern France. 
 
 Fabienne Kabou, 39, admitted leaving her only child – named Adélaïde after her grandmother - in freezing conditions on the Berck-sur-Mer beach as the tide came in during a hearing following the incident in November 2013. 
 
 Ms Kabou is said to have taken a train from Paris to the Channel coast, and on arrival had allegedly asked locals about tide times, Le Monde reported. 
 
 On the same evening she is accused of taking the girl to the beach – which she allegedly told detectives she chose because “even the name sounded sad” – and returning without her. A fisherman discovered the child's body the following morning. 
 
 Although Ms Kabou admitted to leaving the girl shortly after she was arrested, subsequent psychiatric analysis said the defendant had "severely impaired judgement due to paranoid delusions", Le Figaro reported. 
 
 However, psychiatrists found the woman was not clinically insane, so a trial is being held to decide the woman's guilt. 
 
 During a hearing at the Boulogne-sur-Mer court on 23 December 2013, Ms Kabou described how she had felt driven by a relentless force, according to Le Parisien. 
 
 She explained: “I'm still standing, I hold her against me and then I say ‘no, no, no’, I keep saying no, I do not know why. I cried. It’s as if I was telling someone I could not do a thing like that, but I did.” 
 
 Ms Kabou was previously living in a Paris workshop with sculptor Michael Lafon, who was 30 years her senior and the father to her child. 
 
 She had become pregnant twice before – both times suffering miscarriages – and gave birth to the third child alone in the workshop. 
 
 Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 show all Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 30 per cent of people deal with anxiety by talking to a friend or relative, or by going for a walk. Getty 
 
 2/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Almost one in five people feel anxious all or a lot of the time. PA 
 
 3/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 22 per cent of women feel anxious a lot or all of the time, compared to 15 per cent of men. Roman Levin/Flickr Creative Commons 
 
 4/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 45 per cent of people who feel anxious in everyday life cite financial issues as their biggest cause of worry. Getty 
 
 5/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report And 26 per cent of people who feel anxious say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with worry. And 26 per cent of people say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with anxiety. 
 
 6/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 27 per cent of people who suffer from anxiety say work issues, such as long hours, are the source of the problem. Getty 
 
 7/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report But 16 per cent use alcohol to cope, while 10 per cent turn to cigarettes in the face of anxiety. Unemployed people are more likely to resort to these harmful strategies: 27 per cent use alcohol and 23 per cent use cigarettes. AFP/Getty 
 
 8/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Only seven per cent of people who say they suffer from anxiety seek help from their GP. Getty 
 
 9/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report People are thought to be more anxious than they were five years ago. Alessandra/Flickr Creative Commons 
 
 10/10 Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report The stresses of modern life are thought to have created "The Age of Anxiety". Getty 
 
 The pair had never registered the birth of the girl, so officially she did not exist. According to three experts on the case this was because the woman believed her daughter to be in great danger. 
 
 Drs Daniel Zagury, Roland Coutanceau and Mourassis Wilquin examined the woman – who was born to a wealthy Catholic family in Dakar, Senegal - and found she had “great intelligence” and “an IQ well above average”. 
 
 However, they were also said to be struck by the faith she placed in irrational beliefs such as witchcraft, according to Le Monde. 
 
 Ms Kabou reportedly felt ill and often had hallucinations, which she had documented in a journal. She also wrote how she could hear the voices of dead relatives who she believed intended to harm her, the newspaper said. 
 
 The trial is expected to take a week and, if found guilty, Ms Kabou could recieve a life sentence.
– In November 2013, Fabienne Kabou traveled to the French coastal town of Berck-sur-Mer with her 15-month-old daughter and checked into a hotel. She reportedly asked locals about the tides, breastfed Adélaïde on the beach, and then, allegedly, left the little girl there as the tide came in. The next day, Kabou returned to Paris via train and a fisherman found Adélaïde's body—still strapped into her stroller, according to the Mirror, though the Irish Times says Kabou had taken her out of the pram first. Kabou, now 39, is on trial this week for her daughter's murder, the Guardian reports. She has confessed, saying she chose the town because "even the name sounded sad," and that evil forces and voices pushed her to kill the little girl. While psychiatric analysis noted "paranoid delusions," the Independent reports Kabou was deemed able to stand trial. On Monday, she reportedly told the court she killed her daughter because it was "easier that way." Per French media, Kabou has described the moments leading up to her daughter's alleged abandonment: "She was looking for my breast, I gave it to her. ... I clutched her against me" and cried. Then, "I must have left Ada at five meters, perhaps two. In any case, she would have drowned straight away. I don’t know how fast the tide came in but it was very close." She says she chose to leave the girl by the water because it was "like amniotic fluid." Kabou insists the girl was "calm" and "didn't feel in danger" as she hugged her, apologized, then "turned on my heels and ... ran." Kabou's lawyer says Adélaïde's father was not happy about the surprise pregnancy, leaving Kabou feeling depressed and "deeply alone," and that Kabou felt she was saving her daughter from an unhappy life. (In the US, this woman killed six of her own newborns.)