Woman jailed for killing baby niece in ‘frustration’

A woman who threw her five-month-old niece to the ground in a fit of rage – inflicting fatal head injuries – then left the little girl to die alone in hospital.

A woman who inflicted fatal head injuries on her five-month-old niece, whom she shook and threw on the ground in a rage, later left the little girl to die alone in hospital, not even returning when the infant’s life support was switched off.

Sandra Leigh Houston took in her two young nieces including five-month-old Senah after the death of their mother and her twin sister in 2018.

The Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday heard it meant Houston was then looking after six children to whom she displayed a “pattern of violence”, regularly smacking them, sometimes repeatedly and with full force, including baby Senah.

A post-mortem revealed Senah had 38 injuries when she died, including fractured ribs likely caused by her being hit on the stomach and fractures to both her legs likely caused by her nappy being forcefully changed in the weeks before her death.

Houston pleaded guilty to manslaughter, child cruelty and grievous bodily harm over her treatment of Senah.

Crown Prosecutor Mark Green said on November 19, 2018, Houston had shaken Senah and threw her onto the ground where she slept from as high as waist or chest height, causing fatal head injuries.

Sandra Leigh Houston. Photo Supplied Facebook

He said Houston’s husband Jason Bowman came into the room a short time later and noticed Senah needed her nappy changed and when he picked her up, she started “crying hysterically” before going “limp, cold and floppy”.

“(Houston) picked up the child and wrapped her in a blanket, she tried to give Senah a bottle but the child wasn’t engaging and formula came out of her nose,” Mr Green said.

The court heard Mr Bowman panicked and along with Houston and the five other children, rushed to the Logan Hospital.

“When at the hospital the defendant walked into emergency and told the nurses Senah wasn’t breathing properly and ‘she seemed to be dead or dying’,” Mr Green said.

“She showed no urgency when entering the hospital or when speaking with nurses.”

He said nurses found Senah was deeply comatose, mostly unresponsive, her breathing was shallow and she needed to be ventilated.

Mr Green said Houston stayed for less than an hour at the hospital before leaving Senah there alone.

Houston did not call to check on her niece or visit her again at the Logan Hospital or at the Queensland Children’s Hospital where she was transferred before dying the following day when her life support was switched off.

In police interviews on November 19 and December 13, 2018, Houston said she was unable to explain how any of the injuries were inflicted on Senah.

“However on 17 December 2018 she attended the Logan police station unannounced and told police ‘it is possible I asserted too much force on the baby’,” Mr Green said.

“The defendant was unable to explain the exact mechanism of injury but told police ‘I had to be the one to do it’.”

Houston told a psychiatrist that she had difficulty feeding Senah which frustrated her and sometimes she would smack her on the stomach, back or nappy with “full force”.

She also admitted to previously dropping her from heights from a few inches up to a few and “felt nothing” and had no guilt because she didn’t believe she was injuring her.

Jason Michael Bowman leaves Brisbane Supreme Court after his wife Sandra Houston is sentenced for manslaughter. Picture: Richard Walker

On the day of inflicting the fatal injury, she said she dropped the baby from waist or chest height on to her back because “I was frustrated and angry”.

Defence barrister Catherine Morgan said the university-educated Houston suddenly found herself looking after six children all under the age of six and was doing her “incompetent best” while grieving the death of her twin sister with whom she was very close.

“She’d done what she believed to be the right thing, the only thing, which was to take on the care of her deceased sister’s children at a time where it’s fairly obvious from her account to (the psychiatrist) that she was barely coping with the demands of parenting her own children,” Ms Morgan said.

“It was in the context of the profound and devastating loss of her twin sister and her only friend that she unravelled to the point where it was not just a matter of smacking a child, which some people may or may not approve of, but it went beyond that and she accepts by her plea what she has done and does not seek in any way to resile from her responsibility or whatever punishment your honour may impose on her today.”

Ms Morgan said Houston was “deeply remorseful” for her actions.

“It is hard to imagine a situation where any punishment a court could impose on her would be more onerous than the punishment she has already inflicted on herself,” Ms Morgan said.

“She is not a woman without conscience and she is not a woman without feeling and as a result of that her suffering, which as she says will be for the rest of her life, is acute.”

Justice Thomas Bradley sentenced Houston to nine years imprisonment and made a serious violent offender declaration, meaning she will have to serve 80 per cent of that sentence behind bars before she is eligible for parole.

“Senah’s life had it not ended in this way may have been long or short we don’t know – she may have brought love into the lives of others, she could have solved longstanding scientific conundrums, she might have written one of the great works of Australian literature, she may have been in the health profession and saved or helped many people,” he said.

“The vulnerability of very young babies calls out for care and protection.

“And one of the few means left to show care for Senah is to impose a just and appropriate sentence for your conduct which ended her life and before then involved cruel and ultimately lethal mistreatment of her.”

Houston has already served 1297 days in custody.

“This was not a single incident in which you lost control,” Justice Bradley said.

“Over a period of some weeks Senah was so roughly treated as to suffer a number of broken bones in her limbs, it would have been obvious that the baby was subject to such pain that she was in need of medical care. None was sought.”

“Cruelty is an apt description for this offence.”

Houston’s husband Jason Michael Bowman was charged with one charge of cruelty to a child under 16 in relation to Senah.

He has previously indicated he will fight the charge and his case is due to be mentioned in court next week.