Mother sentenced to 27 months in death of toddler

A mother convicted of criminal negligence causing the death of her two-year-old daughterwas sentenced Thursday to 27 months in prison.

The toddler died of a perforated bowel in April 2004. An autopsy found that a plastic pencil-shaped toy, nine centimetres long and one centimetre in diameter, caused it. It had been inside the girl for two to three days.

During the trial, the judge found that Anna-Marie Mooers, 27, of Canterbury, N.B., failed to recognize that her daughter was in need of medical attention and totake her to the hospital.

Mooers' ex-boyfriend, Curtis Brent Hathaway, was also charged in the case but was acquitted in October.He is now facing a charge of sexual assault involving a different child.

The Crown had said Mooers' sentence should be two to four years in prison.

"The sentence must reflect the public's revulsion of such conduct," Crown prosecutor Lucie Mathurin-Ring said.

The defence sought a conditional sentence with extensive counselling.

Defence lawyer Brian Munro said his client has been threatened in jail.

"Inmates have been calling her a baby killer," Munro said. "She is at risk in jail. If she has to spend much time in there, she might not come out."

Mooers addressed Judge Paulette Garnett in the Fredericton court on Thursday. Mooers cried and said she loved her baby and regretted having trusted people she shouldn't have around her.

"I stupidly thought she was constipated. I never thought she would die," she said.

During the trial, medical experts told the court the toy couldn't have entered the girl accidentally.But the court heard no evidence to suggest how the stylus entered the girl's body.

Munro appealed to the judge that Mooers had no criminal record and loved her family.

"This case is not about a lack of love, it is about a lack of care," Garnett replied.

Garnett said Mooers had a history of refusing help and she was not convincedMooers had accepted responsibility in the girl's death.

The sentence had to provide both denunciation and deterrence, the judge said.

Mooers will receive 70 days ofcredit for time already served.