"Immeasurably sad."
That was how Supreme Court of Western Australia judge Stephen Hall described the death of three-month-old Destiny at the hands of her mother, who let her starve through neglect.
Tamara Louise Thompson, 38, was the primary carer with the duty and responsibility to provide her baby with all of the necessities of life, including food and hydration, Justice Hall said.
Instead, the person Destiny needed most abandoned her and stopped feeding her at all until she died from starvation some time in May 2015.
Then, instead of taking responsibility and feeling remorse, she consistently lied to police, health professionals and acquaintances about what had happened and denied being involved.
Thompson, of Geraldton, was jailed for 10 years with a non-parole period of eight years after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
She could be released by July 2023, including time already served.
Thompson let her baby die "not because of any error but because of antipathy" towards her child, Justice Hall told the court.
Destiny was only discovered a couple of months after her death, her body decomposing inside a cooler bag in a shed.
Until then, Thompson, who had five other children, had lied to people including her daughters, saying the baby was in the care of the Department for Child Protection because she needed a rest.
Thomson's landlord alerted the department, who then involved the police, after she inspected the property and found it in a disgusting state and the whereabouts of the baby unknown.
Defence counsel Helen Prince told Justice Hall that Thompson's borderline personality disorder and depression had affected her judgment and should be mitigating factors that reduced her sentence, along with the fact she had pleaded guilty.
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo rejected that, saying Thompson had refused help from welfare agencies and freely made the choice to use the illegal drug methylamphetamine, which had more of an impact on her ability to function than depression.
Destiny was the result of a casual encounter with her drug dealer.
"There was a lack of genuine remorse," Ms Barbagallo said.
A police interview lasting four hours and 13 minutes had involved her saying "I don't know what happened", "I can't explain it" and "trying to blame someone else.
"These were well-thought out lies and were about self-preservation," Ms Barbagallo said.
Thompson had previously been convicted in country Victoria in 1998 after her one-year-old son was found with a fractured arm.
Thompson was also criticised by Justice Hall and received less of a discount for pleading guilty late in the process after her nine-year-old daughter became a witness.
