Mason Jet Lee sentence: Mum Anne Maree eligible for parole in July

Ann Maree Lee has been sentenced to nine years in jail for the manslaughter of her toddler son Mason Lee. With time already served, she will be eligible for parole in July.

Ann Maree Lee has been sentenced to nine years in jail for the manslaughter of her toddler son Mason Lee.

Justice Jean Dalton imposed a concurrent nine year jail term for manslaughter and three and a half years for the child cruelty offence.

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Lee, who has already spent 937 days behind bars will be eligible for parole in five months on July 19.

Lee this morning pleaded guilty to killing the 22-month-old boy in 2016.

The woman sobbed as she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and child cruelty.

Lee is accused of failing to get medical attention for Mason, whose body slowly shut down in the days after William Andrew O’Sullivan punched him in the stomach.

Ann-Marie Lee and toddler Mason.

Prosecutor Michael Byrne told the court it would have been obvious the child was “very sick and in urgent need of medical attention”.

In her sentencing, Justice Dalton told Lee: “It’s not suggested you knew that injury had been inflicted, the case against you is on the basis of neglect,” Justice Dalton told Lee.

“You were the child’s parent and primary caregiver.

“The child was not related to Mr O’Sullivan, he was your boyfriend, the relationship had lasted just over a year and was not even so domestic that you lived together. Nonetheless you allowed O’Sullivan to take your child and have him stay at his house. You knew that O’Sullivan was a drug user, you knew that he had been violent to you, you knew that he had been violent to at least one of your sons ... you knew that he treated your ... daughter badly and told people how he hated her, you knew your children would run into their bedrooms if he visited your house, … you knew that he was prone to outbursts of anger and that he was jealous, possessive and controlling.

“Furthermore you knew that before the week leading up to Mason’s death that very particularly though that week most unusually O’Sullivan would take your son Mason and keep him at his house and effectively limit your contact with your son, in fact to some points excluding you from contact with your son. That was truly extraordinary behaviour.”

Anne Maree Lee.

Justice Dalton said O’Sullivan’s criminal culpability was worse in that he inflicted the fatal blow on Mason.

“There is though one respect in which your offending is worse than his and that is you’re the child’s parent,” she said.

“He was someone who was not related to the child and really he’d been your boyfriend for a year.”

“I think that’s where the really culpable part of your offending lies is in the fact that you have abandoned care to (O’Sullivan).”

Justice Dalton acknowledged submissions that Lee had low to borderline intelligence and had been the victim of violence as a child.