http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/mussie-debresay-jailed-for-11-years-over-stomping-death-of-toddler-20161221-gtfjs0.html
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DECEMBER 21 2016 - 2:00PM
Mussie Debresay jailed for 11 years over stomping death of toddler
Adam Cooper
A man who killed a two-year-old girl by stomping on her when he became angry because she had urinated on his couch through her nappy has been jailed for 11 years.
Mussie Debresay was this year found by a jury to have inflicted fatal internal injuries when he stomped on the toddler's abdomen in his Footscray unit on the morning of May 13, 2005.
"You assumed responsibility for [her] welfare; at just two years of age her vulnerability to you was absolute," he told Debresay. "Your abuse of her trust through the imposition of physical force was also absolute.
"You brutally breached the trust that little girl placed in you. I regard your objective criminality as very high."
While Justice Forrest was satisfied Debresay's crime was spontaneous and the result of anger and frustration, he said it was the role of adults to look after children.
He said that if Debresay's sentence deterred another adult from abusing a child, then some good would come out of the girl's death.
Doctors found that the toddler had died as a result of internal injuries caused by blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
Despite her critical injuries and appearance that she was seriously unwell, Debresay and the girl's mother failed to get the toddler medical attention until it was too late. They took her to a medical centre after 3pm, when the girl had become unresponsive. Doctors and ambulance paramedics were unable to revive her.
Justice Forrest said that by the time the couple took the girl to the medical centre it was too late, because she was by that stage either dying or already dead.
Debresay could have told the paramedics what had happened but failed to do so, the court had heard. Authorities were later told the girl had fallen off the couch.
Debresay was interviewed by police on the day of the girl's death, but he was not charged until exactly a decade later, on May 13 last year.
In 2013, the state coroner found him and the girl's mother jointly responsible for the toddler's death, either through their actions or inaction, in failing to get medical help sooner.
Both refused to give evidence at the inquest for fear of self-incrimination. The mother was never charged.
On Wednesday, Justice Forrest said it was not his job to sentence the woman "for her many failings as a mother".
By the stage she became infatuated with Debresay after they met in early 2005, the judge said, this had compromised "whatever parenting skills she had".
Justice Forrest acknowledged the hardship Debresay would experience in prison given his major depressive disorder – which had developed well after the girl's death – as well as his susceptibility to panic attacks. He collapsed in court last month after one such attack.
The nature of his offending also meant Debresay would be at risk of abuse and assaults from other prisoners, the court heard.
Debresay's lawyer told the court on Monday his client had felt he was under investigation for the entire decade after the girl's death. On Wednesday, Justice Forrest said the "anxiety and uncertainty" Debresay had experienced was a form of punishment in itself.
Debresay, who came to Australia from Eritrea as a teenager, has a daughter with his victim's mother and a teenage son from another relationship. He has already served 307 days in custody.
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VIDEO
Man jailed for 11 years after fatally stomping on toddler
AAP on December 21, 2016, 3:40 pm
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/33629119/mussie-debresay-jailed-for-11-years-after-fatally-stomping-on-toddler/#page1
Received on Wed Dec 21 2016 - 12:13:49 EST