Health chiefs today urged the mother of a new-born baby found dead in an isolated copse to come forward for treatment and support.

Police are continuing their inquiries into the discovery on Friday, 30 April, of the baby boy's decomposing body in a wooded area near Burythorpe Bridge, on the Norton to Stamford Bridge road.

They fear the baby's mother may be in urgent need of medical care.

North Yorkshire Police spokesman Tony Lidgate said: "We're getting a better response to our appeal and we're following up several lines of inquiry.

"Today, detectives will be liaising with social services, schools, hospitals and doctors' surgeries."

Mr Lidgate added: "DCI Honeysett points out that we don't as yet know what the boy died of, so we are keeping an open mind on the circumstances - abandonment is only one option."

Gilly Collinson, spokeswoman for the Scarborough and North-East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust, urged the mother to come forward.

She said: "We have a minor injuries department at Malton Hospital that's open 24 hours a day.

"We would be really pleased if the mother came to see if she needs any medical help."

"Certainly, she must be in need of support and she would be treated very sympathetically, given any advice she needed and referred to the appropriate people for care and counselling."

Ms Collinson said: "She would be treated with sympathy, and we would ask that she comes forward.

"It might sound a bit strange to recommend that she attend the minor injuries unit at Malton, but it's open around the clock, it's staffed by very highly skilled nurses and they could take care of her."

The naked body of the new-born baby boy was found by a walker on Friday in a copse just south of Eddlethorpe.

Police say the body may never have been found if the walker had not been passing by.

The area in which the baby was discovered was searched by police over the Bank Holiday weekend. Several items were discovered and are now undergoing forensic analysis.

Motorists who use the Norton to Stamford Bridge road have been urged to try to recall anything suspicious they may have seen over the past month.

A post-mortem investigation showed the baby could have been dead for up to a month. But it failed to establish the cause of death.

Anyone with information about the identity of the mother should telephone 01723 509621 and leave details for Det Chief Insp Barry Honeysett, who is heading the investigation.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.