Woman Who Starved Three-Month-Old Baby To Death Because She Reminded Her Of Meth-Dealer Father, Gets Ten Years
A mother who starved her three-month-old infant to death and left her body to decompose in a shed has been jailed for ten years.
According to the Daily Mail, Tamara Thompson, an Australian pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced for killing her little girl, Destiny. The 38-year-old woman did not want the baby girl. She considered Destiny a stark reminder of her short-lived relationship with her father, a meth dealer who supplied her drugs.
Destiny was born six weeks premature and spent her first 20 days of birth in a neo-natal unit. She was born via Caesarean section just like her five older siblings. Only two of the children were staying with Thompson at the time of Destiny’s death.
According to court records, Tamara refused to feed the child, at best leaving a baby bottle of milk by the infant’s cot. When the child died in July last year, the 38-year-old woman wrapped Destiny’s body inside a muslin cloth, put it inside a cooler bag and dumped it in a backyard shed.
Mum who let baby starve gets 10 years: A MOTHER-of-six who starved her three month old baby to death then left her… https://t.co/pOswW16Dli
— Perth Daily News (@PerthDailyNews) December 17, 2016
Over time, neighbors noticed that they had not seen the three-month old baby for awhile. Tamara Thompson gave them different stories. She said the child had being taken away by the Department for Child Protection because she was suffering from post-natal depression. She also told people that her child was staying with friends.
However, when her landlord inspected her property and saw her children living with cats, dogs, rabbits, ducks, and chickens, she became worried. The house was in a terrible state with no washing machine or refrigerator. The rooms were littered with animal feces and vomit. When she saw Tamara in a chair, rocking back and forth, not bothering to clean the filth, she called the police.
Upon her arrest, the 38-year-old was asked where her little girl was, she admitted that Destiny was dead, but that she did not know where her body was and did not care. Hours later, she said Destiny’s body was in the shed. A witness testified that Thompson hated Destiny because she saw her drug dealer father every time she looked at her.
The witness said that a month before Destiny was last seen, her mother began selling her clothes and toys on social media. Thompson initially claimed she was not guilty of the unlawful killing of her daughter; she later pleaded guilty half-way through her trial.
New post: "
WA mother Tamara Louise Thompson who starved baby to be sentenced
" https://t.co/8h5N5zyNtT— Dubai Life Coach – Lee Levy (@dubailifecoach_) December 16, 2016
Her defense lawyer argued that Tamara did not intentionally starve her baby to death, but rather suffered from a bi-polar disorder and depression which impaired her sense of judgment. The defense counsel, Helen Prince made known that all of Thompson’s relationships were scared by domestic violence and that the baby’s father was the latest one.
Prince agreed that the pregnancy was not planned, but claimed that the baby was loved by her mother. According to her, Tamara Thompson’s head was not in the right place because she was locked in a custody battle over her two daughters when the incident occurred. The defense lawyer said Tamara Thompson was not a good mother, but argued that low moral standards not be misinterpreted as criminal guilt.
The presiding judge was having none of that, adding that Thompson had a number of options to seek for assistance regarding her condition. Judge Stephen Hall said the crime was aggravated because Tamara continued doing drugs even after her baby was born.
Hall said Thompson killed her child by horrifically failing to feed her newborn child for days, adding that one day her children would be confronted with the reality that their mother killed their little sister. The judge said it was a sad thing for a mother meant to provide love and care to be the one directly responsible for a child’s demise.
“It’s immeasurably sad that the person who Destiny most needed to love and care for her did not do either of those things.”
According to ABC News, Tamara Thompson from Western Australia will have to serve eight years of her sentence before being eligible for parole in 2023.
[Featured Image by Toxa W W W/Thinkstock]
