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.
--AP