A UK court on Tuesday increased the sentence of a woman who caused and allowed the fatal abuse of her toddler daughter by her female partner.
Smith’s sentence was later referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General’s Office under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme.
On Tuesday, three senior judges at the Court of Appeal increased Smith’s sentence to 12 years, saying it shouldn’t have been mitigated due to the fact she had lost her daughter.
Brockhill abused Hobson for months before she died from “utterly catastrophic” and “unsurvivable” injures.
Sentencing the pair in December last year, Justice Christina Lambert said that Hobson’s “short life was marked by neglect, cruelty, and injury.”
She said that the “fatal punch or kick” to Hobson caused the toddler to lose half the blood in her body and damaged her internal organs, and that the toddler was found to have suffered two brain injuries, numerous rib fractures, the fracture and refracture of her leg, and a skull fracture.
“She was also treated with, at best, callous indifference by you both and, on many occasions, with frank cruelty,” the judge said, but added that Smith was a “rather immature and impressionable girl,” who “became obsessed” by Brockhill, and that Hobson had been “caught up in the crossfire” of their relationship.
She said she took into account that Smith had lost her daughter.
Arguing for an increase of Smith’s sentence, Tom Little QC, for the Attorney General’s Office, said the original judge had found Smith to be a “neglectful and cruel parent who thought only of her own interests.”
He argued that there were aggravating parts of Smith’s crime that were not taken into account and that the sentencing judge had wrongly decreased the number of years she should serve.
“This was not a case where the offender was so racked with guilt and pleaded guilty at the very first opportunity, remorseful from the outset about the loss, to be a significant point in the offender’s favour,” he said.
The barrister also said the sentencing judge did not refer to Star’s vulnerability or to the at least 11-minute delay in calling 999 after she suffered the fatal injuries.
Zafar Ali QC, for Smith, said it was “simply incorrect” to say his client had not been remorseful, saying she had been “extremely remorseful” during the trial.
He added that Smith was also a victim of Brockhill’s abuse.
“This case was permeated by domestic violence—she was physically abused by Brockwell on several occasions,” he said.
Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mr. Justice Sweeney and Mr. Justice Jeremy Baker, found that the sentencing judge was wrong to reduce Smith’s sentence from the starting point based on mitigation, including of her losing her daughter.
“On the facts of this case, where Miss Smith had treated Star with such cruelty … the judge was wrong to identify this as a mitigating feature and then give it the weight she did,” she said.
“There was little, if any, to be said in mitigation,” she said. “In our judgment no less a sentence than 12 years would meet the justice of this case.”
The judge said Star was “particularly vulnerable due to her very young age,” and that “self-evidently, Miss Smith was in a position of trust.”
