No Jail Time For Mother Who Assaulted Baby In An Attempted Murder

A QUEENSLAND stay-at-home mother has escaped immediate jail time after being convicted of assaulting her baby daughter, despite a judge describing the act as “an attack on a defenceless victim”. A Brisbane Supreme Court jury on Wednesday found Ashleigh Meagan Watterson not guilty of two counts of attempted murder, as well as an alternative charge of grievous bodily harm, but convicted her of assaulting four-month-old Sarah. Justice Martin Burns sentenced her to two years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for a period of five years, for deliberately cutting off the infant’s air supply in October 2010. Ashleigh Meagan Watterson, 30, pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of four-month-old Sarah, who suffered catastrophic brain injuries when she was deprived of oxygen in late 2010.