A mother has been spared jail for killing her 10-week-old daughter, six days after the girl was discharged into her parents’ care against the advice of healthcare professionals.
Lily-Mai Hurrell Saint George suffered 18 rib fractures, a leg fracture and a fatal head injury at the hands of Lauren Saint George, 25, hours after a home visit from a social worker.
Saint George, of Belmont Road, Haringey, was suffering from post natal depression when she violently shook Lily-Mai and pulling and twisting her leg on January 31 2018.
Lily-Mai died at Great Ormond Street Hospital on February 2, when surgeons turned off her life support machine due to the extent of her brain damage.
A jury deliberated for more than 11 hours to find Saint George, of Enfield in north London, not guilty of murder and manslaughter on July 25, following a six-week trial.
But she was found guilty of a charge of infanticide by a majority of 10 to one.
The charge is an alternative to murder where a mother kills her child while her mind is disturbed by a failure to recover from the effects of childbirth.
Saint-George appeared at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday (September 9) where she was given a two-year suspended sentence, 60 days rehabilitation activities and a 12 month supervision order.
Six days before the attack Haringey social services decided Lily-Mai should be transferred to the sole care of her parents, Saint George and Darren Hurrell, 25, despite professionals at Barnet Hospital warning she was at risk of neglect.
The pair were housed in Duckett’s Green while Lily-Mai was in Barnet Hospital, having been born prematurely at 31 weeks.
During the trial, prosecutor Sally O’Neill QC told the jury: “Lily-Mai’s death could almost definitely have been avoided if she had not been discharged into the care of two people who were woefully unsuited to caring for her.”
The Metropolitan Police initially said there was insufficient evidence to charge her parents, but they both faced trial over Lily-Mai’s death after a coroner last year ruled she was unlawfully killed.
Previously, Mr Justice Spencer found Mr Hurrell had no case to answer for charges of murder and manslaughter and threw out a charge of causing or allowing the death of a child against both parents.
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