A Suffolk mother who was found guilty of child cruelty after her 14-week-old baby daughter died has been sentenced.
Carly Easey, of Chedburgh, near Bury St Edmunds, was handed a 12-month community order at a hearing at Norwich Crown Court.
The 36-year-old's daughter, Eleanor, died as a result of a head injury on December 20, 2019.
She was found not guilty of allowing the death of her daughter but guilty of neglect following a trial.
Eleanor's father, 31-year-old Christopher Easey, who she has divorced from, was found guilty of manslaughter and neglect.
He was jailed for 14 years in the same hearing.
Eleanor was found by pathologists to have sustained a catastrophic brain injury “consistent with having been violently shaken”, judge Mr Justice Edward Murray told the court.
The court heard Christopher Easey, of Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire, “dropped Eleanor on her head having been distracted by the dogs barking".
The judge told Norwich Crown Court he was “sure” Easey was the one who “inflicted all the serious injuries Eleanor suffered”, which included 31 rib fractures.
He said the girl’s mother “didn’t know (her) husband was injuring (their) baby and had done so on multiple occasions”.
Sally Howes QC, prosecuting, said a post-mortem examination recorded that Eleanor was poorly nourished, had a prominent ribcage and reduced muscle bulk in her limbs.
The judge said both parents had “at times given her diluted squash to drink instead of milk”, and described it as “wholly inappropriate” that she was given a lick of a custard cream biscuit.
He said both parents had “abandoned” Eleanor “on at least one occasion for a significant time”.
Elizabeth Marsh QC, mitigating for Carly Easey, said Eleanor “was killed through no action or inaction” by her mother.
“She feels extreme guilty for failing to protect her baby from the man who deceived her,” she said.
Sally O’Neill QC, mitigating for Christopher Easey, said he will “carry to his grave the knowledge what he did caused the injuries to his baby daughter”.
She described him as a “very inexperienced father”.
Eleanor was taken to hospital on December 18, 2019 after being found unresponsive at at the family home in Morton on the Hill, Norfolk.
A scan showed she had a significant head injury and recent bleeding between her skull and brain.
She was later transferred from hospital in Norwich to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where doctors confirmed she had suffered a catastrophic brain injury.
However, she died two days later.
Tests showed Eleanor had suffered bleeds to her brain on three separate occasions, the most recent within 48 hours of her being admitted to hospital.
A Home Office post-mortem examination established her cause of her death as a head injury.
Carly Easey's community order requires her to take part in a specified programme of activities.
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