A drug-addicted mother who screamed "I should buy you a skirt" as she shook her crying baby son to death has been jailed for at least four years.
The violence was witnessed by a visiting neighbour, who said the woman was complaining: "He doesn't f*****g stop crying, he doesn't f*****g shut up".
The NSW Hunter Valley woman, now 30, pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to the manslaughter of her nine-week old baby in February 2007.
In sentencing her on Friday, Judge Brian Knox said the woman's two other children had been removed from her by authorities and had been living with relatives at the time.
The neighbour, who witnessed the shaking days before the baby's death, said the mother had looked "very, very angry".
She had put her hands under the baby's arms and held him in front of her face while shaking him wildly, the court was told.
Because she was shaking him so fast, the neighbour said, she could not count how many times it happened.
Judge Knox said the evidence showed the offence was spontaneous, occurring when the mother lost her temper due to "an inability to control herself due to drug intake".
The baby suffered from suspected withdrawal symptoms when he was born and was monitored by weekly visits to his home by a midwife until he was about eight weeks old.
On a visit to her GP, the mother revealed she was not coping with things and not bonding with her son, the judge said.
After the ambulance took the shaken infant to hospital, the mother told staff "I would not hurt my baby", adding that she'd had "a hassle with DOCS (Department of Community Services) in the past".
She also asked that her family not be told anything about the baby's death.
Judge Knox noted a psychiatric report which said the woman had been treated for depression and substance abuse for many years.
She started using amphetamines at 16, while later drug use also included heroin and ice.
The woman referred to being raped at 16 and her father gave evidence that the ensuing court case - which did not result in a conviction - also had a brutal effect on his daughter.
Judge Knox said the mother's offence was a "breach of trust" involving a vulnerable, fragile infant and that she had not shown remorse.
He noted she had been offered assistance many times in the past from people including her own family and professionals.
In setting a maximum jail term of six years, he said her parole conditions should include drug testing and a requirement that she inform the probation service if she became pregnant again.
Front page
RSS Feed