A mother who killed her son “because he looked like his father” has been sentenced to 44 years in jail, with a non-parole period of at least 33 years, while her partner was given 40 years and a non-parole period of 30 years.
Justice Peter Johnson gave “de facto life sentences” to the pair for murdering the three-year-old who endured weeks of abuse in the lead up to his death.
The 43-year-old mother admitted to police she had thoughts of killing her little boy, known only as Joseph, because she “just didn’t connect with him”.
“Don’t get me wrong I did love that boy … but there was a part of me that hated him … because he looked like his father, because he’s his father’s child,” she told police.
The young boy had only lived with his biological mother and her partner for 51 days in Oberon, regional New South Wales. The judge said what happened to him in that time was “far removed from any concept of what is lawful correction”.
“This was a terrible crime of child murder,” Justice Peter Johnson said when sentencing the pair at the NSW Supreme Court in Darlinghurst on Thursday.
“LN and AW regularly abused this young boy in their home, when it would have been simple enough to ring the extended family.
“The blame lies entirely at the feet of LN and AW who abused Joseph… and [they] are criminally responsible for his murder.”
Justice Johnson told the extended family not to blame themselves for the toddler’s death.
“They blame themselves for not intervening… for not doing more to stop Joseph from going to live with them.”
“They should not in any way blame themselves for what happened.”
Chilling footage obtained by 9 News shows the woman demonstrating to police how she had abused Joseph before his death.
She pretends a teddy bear is Joseph and then drops it on the corner of a side table before using her knee to squeeze its neck.
“Yeah he was breathing, he was crying, got up and sat down,” she told officers.
“And he just kept giving me filthies all the time, which sometimes it wound me up.
“I wanted to kill him. Don’t get me wrong, I did love that boy, but there was a part of me that hated him because he looks like his father, because he was his father’s child.”
Detective Sergeant Joel Fawkner from NSW Police said some officers had been driven to quit the force after their involvement with the “dreadful” case.
“It’s very traumatic, I think this was inhumane and the torture of acts upon Joseph — you can’t unsee what we’ve seen,” he said.
