A HORSHAM man who stood on a three-year-old girl and hid her injuries betrayed the faith of her mother, a sentencing judge said.
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Harley David Woodford, 22, was sentenced to nine years and six months jail for killing three-year-old Bella Jade Lawrence.
Woodford pleaded guilty to child homicide and was sentenced in Melbourne’s Supreme Court on Friday.
His sentence carries a non-parole period of six years and six months.
Judge Jane Dixon said Woodford, who did not admit his actions until seven months after Bella’s death, had put his own interests above the little girl’s welfare.
“Bella languished at home in pain and misery,” she said.
“Whatever future you do have when you are released, you will be forever burdened by the knowledge of what you did to Bella – a defenceless child who looked up to you for care and protection.
“You betrayed the faith that Miss Roberts placed in you to act as a parent.”
Judge Dixon said Woodford drank excessively as a teenager, used cannabis nightly to relieve stress, and had a fragile and dysfunctional personality.
“It is likely that your cannabis consumption increased your anxiety and agitation and undermined your capacity to cope with your onerous work and family commitments,” she said.
“In the end there is no satisfactory explanation for why you offended in the way that you did other than immaturity and an inability to manage anger and a lack of capacity to manage the demands of full-time work alongside the new responsibility of parenting three small children.”
Judge Dixon said Woodford had been targeted in custody by other offenders during his 325 days behind bars and lived with the ever-present threat of actual harm.
She said Woodford showed remorse and had never been before a court previously.
Judge Dixon said if he had not pleaded guilty she would have imposed a sentence of 11 years and six months.
Bella’s father Johnathon Lawrence said no period of time would be enough for a parent to feel at peace with the loss of a child.