A mother has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years for the murder of her seven-week-old daughter. Sarah Ngaba, 32, fractured the infant's skull and then stopped to purchase a lottery ticket before taking her to the hospital.
Ngaba admitted causing "dreadful, life-shortening and life-limiting" head injuries to Eliza Ngaba but denied murder, claiming she was guilty of infanticide instead. However, in May, a jury at Birmingham Crown Court found her guilty of Eliza's murder.
At the sentencing hearing today, trial judge Mrs Justice Brunner KC sentenced Ngaba to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years and 154 days. The judge described the killing as "the culmination of increasingly hostile behaviour" towards the infant.
Ngaba, formerly of Briarwood in Brookside, Telford, Shropshire, was previously convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to her child, who was left profoundly disabled by the assault.
Ngaba was charged with murder after London-born Eliza died aged two in August 2022 from a respiratory infection, having been left vulnerable by the assault in November 2019.
