Mother jailed for life for daughter's murder

A woman who fractured the skull of her seven-week-old daughter, who went on to die aged two, has been sentenced to at least 19 years in prison for her murder.

Sarah Ngaba, formerly of Telford, Shropshire, was found guilty of the murder of her daughter Eliza after a trial in May.

Ngaba, 32, accepted she caused "dreadful, life-shortening and life-limiting" head injuries to Eliza in 2019, but had denied murder, following her daughter's death in 2022.

She was jailed for life at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday. With time already served, the judge said she would serve a minimum of 12 years and 154 days in prison.

"Eliza should have had a long and happy life," said the judge Justice Brunner KC in her sentencing remarks.

"You are a person who loses your temper and lashes out."

She added that Ngaba had "never given a full and truthful account of what happened".

"I'm satisfied you attacked her in a fit of rage."

Ngaba was jailed for 14 years for wounding in 2021, of which she had already served six years and 211 days.

This meant that time period was subtracted from the minimum term of the life sentence.

In May, the court heard Eliza died from a respiratory infection, having been left vulnerable by the skull fracture, for which Ngaba was already serving a 14-year jail term.

Ngaba had been sent to prison in May 2021 for the assault, leading Eliza to be placed into foster care.

The assault left the young girl with a life-changing head injury from which she was profoundly disabled and vulnerable to severe complications from infection.

Evidence presented to the jury during the trial showed she would not have died from such an infection had she not been left so vulnerable by the injuries inflicted by Ngaba 33 months earlier.

Ngaba visited a shop to buy a lottery ticket before taking Eliza to hospital in a taxi on 13 November 2019.

"The medical evidence in this case shows that Eliza's injuries were caused by two distinct and different mechanisms - that is shaking and impact," said prosecutor Lisa Hancox in submissions prior to the sentence.

"Clearly the attack was prolonged."

Ngaba had shown growing hostility towards Eliza prior to the attack, Hancox said, adding that her reaction to the infant's collapse had been "callous and uncaring".

"The distribution of injuries shows this was not a momentary attack," Brunner told Ngaba.

"The trigger for you losing your temper is not clear. The result of that assault was immediately catastrophic.

"It would have been obvious to you straight away that Eliza had serious injuries, but you continued to act in a callous way.

"You deliberately delayed and you deliberately concealed Eliza's terrible state. Instead you put your interests above hers."

Defence barrister Gordon Aspden KC, addressing the court in mitigation, said Ngaba had joined the Anglican community while serving at HMP Foston Hall in Derbyshire, where the chaplain described her as a model prisoner and "never violent".

"It's difficult to imagine a more melancholy and tragic case than this for so many people, not least the victim," he told the judge.

He asked the court to pass the least possible minimum term.