The young mother of the baby found by children in a shoebox after it was dumped in a Cospicua alley in 2007 has spoken for the first time of her love for her son.

Three years on from the incident, Karen Grech, 22, told The Sunday Times in an interview: "My son is the best present I could have ever received."

She has clawed her way back from the depths of a police investigation and a care order to take her life into her own hands. Today she is a working mother who spends every minute of her free time with her son, Hayden.

However, she is saddened by the incident and its aftermath. "People always accused me of throwing the baby away, but it was never the case. I had just wanted to hide him from my mother - it never crossed my mind to throw him away," she says.

The baby's dramatic story unfolded on April 1, 2007, when three teenagers playing in the street heard a noise coming from a shoebox inside a plastic bag. Assuming there were kittens, they peeped in and were shocked to find a newborn.

It turned out Ms Grech had concealed her pregnancy, giving birth alone at home in the morning - "labour lasted 90 minutes and I was trying hard not to shout in pain so people wouldn't hear me" - putting the baby in a shoebox until she could pass him on to the nuns in Żabbar at nightfall.

But her plans were foiled when her mother discovered the shoebox in the washroom, and mistaking it for refuse, took it outside.