October 26, 2007 - 1:01PM
Source: ABC
A 23-year-old woman who killed her partner's baby daughter at Dubbo, in central-western New South Wales, has been jailed for up to seven-and-a-half years.
The 16-week-old girl died from a massive head injury in July 2004.
The woman, who cannot be named, admitted to slamming the child down on a bed, striking her head on a wooden arm rest.
She said she wanted to stop the child crying and did not mean to hurt her.
The woman was a heroin addict and suffering from drug withdrawal.
Despite her admissions, she later tried to implicate a fellow inmate in the baby's death.
She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and trying to pervert the course of justice and was today sentenced to at least five years in jail.
Acting Justice Jane Matthews noted the woman had herself, in many ways, been a victim for much of her life.