Australian mother sentenced to life in prison for starving daughter to death
By APFriday, October 2, 2009
Aussie mom gets life in jail for starving daughter
SYDNEY, Australia — An Australian woman has been sentenced to life in prison for the starvation death of her 7-year-old daughter.
Justice Robert Allan Hulme called the girl’s death “unimaginably heartless and cruel” as he sentenced the 36-year-old mother on Friday.
The woman was convicted of murder in June. Her husband, convicted at the same time of manslaughter in his daughter’s death, was sentenced Friday to 16 years imprisonment, with possible parole after 12 years.
The couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons meant to protect the identity of their three other children, had pleaded not guilty to murdering their daughter.
The girl, known as Ebony, weighed barely 20 pounds (9 kilograms) when she died November 2007. Several doctors testified she suffered the most severe case of malnutrition they had ever seen.
