Mother who abused 7-month-old girl for months before fracturing her skull and causing her death jailed for 6 years
A mother who beat her seven-month-old daughter to death after abusing her for nearly half of her life has been jailed for six years.
The 33-year-old Indian-born woman, Shalina Padmanabha, allegedly abused baby Shagun for almost three months after the premature baby spent the first four months of her life in the hospital.
The baby suffered fatal injuries to her head after Padmanabha hit her on the head and bashed her head against a hard surface.
Shagun was rushed to the Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, London but succumbed to her injuries on August 15, 2017.
Padmanabha still maintains her innocence. While sentencing her, Justice McGowan said; "You had, in my experience, an unprecedented amount of care and intervention," reported Mirror.
"You were carrying out acts of assault against this baby or knew, no doubt, almost immediately after an incident occurred, that you had done something you shouldn't. It is entirely wrong to say you show remorse and even now you do not accept responsibility," the judge continued.
The court heard that baby Shagun had suffered from an 8cm and 11cm fracture to the skull in addition to other injuries on her legs.
During the post mortem examination, the doctors had also found previous healing injuries, cracked ribs, and bleeding behind the eyes.
All the injuries were consistent with the baby being viciously shaken, squeezed by the ribs, and having her left leg pulled and twisted.
A jury had cleared Padmanabha of murder but convicted her of manslaughter and of cruelty against a person under 16 after a trial at Inner London Crown Court.
In court, Padmanabha claimed that she did not know why the baby had collapsed.
She had spent many years trying to conceive with her husband before giving birth to her daughter in February 2016 following IVF.
Baby Shagun was premature and had medical issues that required her to remain in the hospital for four and a half months.
After being discharged, she needed to be fed via a tube, had severe eczema and also a small hole in her head.