Killer mother’s lover may be out next year
Soft justice fury over thug who did nothing to save toddler
A DeVIOUS and selfish young mother who stamped her toddler daughter to death has been jailed for 24 years – but her ex-boyfriend, who turned a blind eye to the abuse, could be out of jail by the end of next year.
Kathryn Smith, 23, is beginning a life sentence for her sickening murder of 21-month-old Ayeeshia Smith.
But Matthew rigby, 22, was jailed for just three and a half years after he was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child.
He could be out on licence after 16 months if he is allowed early release for good behaviour, due to time already served on remand. The crime carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.
Last night children’s charities and the couple’s local MP criticised rigby’s ‘concerningly’ lenient sentence, warning it will fail to act as a deterrent.
Sentencing, Mrs Justice Geraldine Andrews said Smith had launched a ‘ brutal and
‘A child who had no chance from the womb’
sustained’ attack on her daughter in 2014 and that the toddler’s life was ‘ snuffed out in a vicious beating in her own bedroom, surrounded by her toys and playthings’.
She added: ‘It was a brutal and sustained attack, with different elements, each involving considerable force, and she must have suffered terrible pain’.
Smith was found guilty of Ayeeshia’s murder last week following a six-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court. The judge said she was a ‘devious, manipulative, selfish, young woman’.
After her daughter’s death on May 1 last year, Smith dialled 999 and told the operator her daughter had suffered a seizure at her maisonette in Stretton, Burtonupon-Trent, Staffordshire.
The toddler died in hospital after suffering a torn heart and biting through her own tongue.
rigby and Smith claimed they had no idea how Ayeeshia was injured. The day after her death, Smith told police her ‘ stupid’ daughter had fallen off her potty into a radiator.
Doctors said Ayeeshia resembled a car crash victim. She had suffered 16 injuries including three broken ribs, haemorrhaging to both lungs and bruising to her buttocks, head, neck, left eyelid and left leg.
It emerged she had suffered a bleed on the brain after an assault by Smith in February 2014 and had received hospital treatment for bruising and weight loss.
The judge told rigby, whom Ayeeshia called ‘ Daddy’, that Ayeeshia might still be alive if he had carried out his threats to call social services or the police.
She added: ‘You failed to take the reasonable steps you could and should have taken to try and protect her from the foreseeable risk of suffering serious violence ... Your failure to act is something you are going to have to live with.’
Claude Knights, chief executive of child protection charity Kidscape, led criticism of rigby’s sentence last night.
She said: ‘Someone with a more humane outlook would not have allowed a pet to suffer in the way that poor child was treated. Threeand-a-half years doesn’t sound very robust ... [rigby] was part of the domestic chaos and created an environment that was not conducive to the child’s wellbeing. ... There is no deterrent effect. There doesn’t seem to have been justice for a child that had no chance from the womb.’
Conservative MP Andrew Griffiths, who represents Burton-upon- Trent, said: ‘It is inexplicable that someone ... who contributed to Ayeeshia’s death could be walking free in (less than) 18 months.’
During the trial, the prosecution said Smith and rigby, both from Nottingham, thrived on the turbulence of their relationship and shared an interest in smoking ‘really large quantities of cannabis’.
The couple, who met at school, were in a relationship until the trial started. Smith, who wore a grey hooded top in the dock, was also given a four-year concurrent jail term for cruelty to a child.
Ayeeshia, who was also known as AJ, was described by those who knew her as a ‘delightful little girl’. Sickeningly, Smith will not reveal the location of Ayeeshia’s ashes.
Yesterday a spokesman for her father ricky Booth’s family, said: ‘We would like the ashes returned so that the family can finally lay [Ayeeshia] to rest.’
He criticised the role of the social services in Ayeeshia’s murder, saying: ‘We were never told of the injuries surrounding the case until it was brought to court.
‘This has left us feeling very distraught and frustrated as we made calls to social services several weeks before AJ passed warning them she was at serious risk.
‘We believe someone should be held responsible and accountable within the social services.’
A serious case review will be carried out by Derbyshire County Council as Ayeeshia had been known to its social services department since Smith was found living in a garage when she was pregnant with Ayeeshia.