Baby death mother Natasha Sultan given supervision order

Natasha Sultan was due to stand trial for murder

A mother who had post-natal depression when she killed her baby daughter in an "explosion of violence" has been given a three-year supervision order.

Five-week-old Amelia Lilly Sultan-Curtis died in hospital after a single blow to the head on 7 October 2012.

Her mother Natasha Sultan, 21, of Hull, was due to stand trial for murder but admitted the lesser charge of infanticide at the city's crown court.

Sentencing judge Jeremy Richardson QC said she was an "utterly broken woman".

He added: "For the remainder of your life you will have to live with the fact that you killed your six-week-old daughter. That burden will never be lifted."

'Changed story'

The judge said if she went on to have other children then social services "will plainly be involved and it may be that you are not permitted to bring up any future child given what has happened."

Sultan, of Welton Grove, admitted infanticide on the first day of her trial - a plea accepted by the prosecution.

Tim Roberts QC, for the prosecution, had told the court Sultan had changed her story several times, at first denying any knowledge of injury to her child.

Later she claimed to have dropped her daughter accidentally, before eventually admitting that she caused the fatal fracture of the skull.

The judge told how Amelia-Lilly was a much wanted child but said it was "plain" that following the birth Sultan suffered from postnatal depression and could not sleep.

He said she had visited her GP and was prescribed anti-depressants but did not take the full dose.

Describing the events on that night in October, the judge said Sultan killed her daughter "by deliberately impacting her head upon a hard surface".

'No sentencing guideline'

"There will be many parents of infants who appreciate the situation in which you found yourself," he said.

"The sudden explosion of violence was due to your unbalanced mind derived from postnatal depression.

"What is harder to understand, however, is your conduct afterwards.

"You went to bed having visited serious violence upon your daughter.

"You neglected her obvious and urgent need for medical attention."

Amelia-Lilly was found injured by Sultan's partner when he returned home from work.

The maximum sentence for infanticide is life imprisonment.

But Judge Richardson said there was no sentencing guideline to help him or any relevant previous cases on which he could base his sentence.

He said he believed the case had "passed the custody threshold" but said: "However, you are an entirely broken woman and your disturbance of mind at the time, coupled with your guilty plea, enables me to take a different course."

The judge also banned her from working with children.