A teenage mother who murdered her baby by violently shaking her has been denied the opportunity to appeal her sentence after she claimed it was “manifestly excessive”.
Cassandra Doohan, now 23, was sentenced to a minimum of 13 years behind bars after she admitted to the murder of her four-month-old daughter Anastasia Hand in 2017.
Cassandra Doohan admitted to killing her baby girl while her father was in the shower. Credit: ninevms
The court previously heard Doohan claimed she “snapped” when her fiance, David Hand, was in the shower, and shook her daughter so violently the girl suffered traumatic head and spinal injuries.
Hand found Anastasia unresponsive in her cot, and she was later pronounced dead at Princess Margaret Hospital. It was later revealed hospital records and accounts from other family members suggested Anastasia had been subjected to ongoing abuse.
In sentencing, Justice Anthony Derrick said the fact Anastasia had died at the hands of her mother was a case of the young woman “failing terribly” to comply with her duty of care.
Justice Derrick said one of the most concerning factors in Doohan’s sentencing was the way she had notified her fiance of Anastasia’s injuries.
The court previously heard when Hand returned from his shower and finished getting dressed, Doohan asked him to hand her the baby, saying: “Daddy, where’s Bubba? I want to give her a Mummy kiss.”
He said Doohan feigning ignorance stopped the “totally vulnerable” Anastasia from receiving immediate care and showed a lack of empathy for the four-month-old.
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