A Midland mother who fractured her baby's skull 'in a fit of rage' has been jailed for life. Sarah Ngaba acted with 'hostility and unkindness' towards her 'tiny and vulnerable' daughter, which culminated in a 'brutal assault' on November 13, 2019.
The then 25-year-old shook seven-week-old Eliza, causing 'bleeding in her brain and eyes', and smashed her head off a hard surface. Eliza was left profoundly disabled by the assault and died in August 2022. Her cause of death was pneumonia and acute lung injury, with the head and brain injury caused by Ngaba identified as a significant contributing cause.
Ngaba, formerly of Briarwood in Brookside, Telford, was previously convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to her child, and was jailed for 14 years in May 2021. But she was charged with murder following the two-year-old's death. The 32-year-old accepted she caused 'dreadful, life-shortening and life-limiting' head injuries to Eliza, but had denied the charge. At Birmingham Crown Court, she was found guilty of murder by a jury's majority verdict of ten to two.
During the sentencing hearing, held at the same court on Friday, June 12, judge Mrs Justice Brunner KC told Ngaba she had 'never given a truthful and full account' of what happened when she 'viciously assaulted' Eliza. She said although it would have been 'immediately obvious' that Eliza was severely injured, Ngaba had delayed seeking help. Ngaba bought a lottery ticket from a shop before taking Eliza to hospital by taxi on November 13, 2019. She 'deliberately concealed' Eliza's terrible state, and on arrival at the hospital, 'adjusted her lies in a calculated way to match new information'.
The judge told her: 'It cannot be said with any certainty whether Eliza's disabilities would have been less severe if you had acted immediately, and it cannot be said her death would have been prevented. But it is clear you did not maximise her chances by seeking help and telling doctors what you had done to her. Instead, you put your own interests above hers.'
Jailing Ngaba for life with a minimum term of 12 years and 154 days, the judge told her: 'You may have regretted what you did but you have never shown remorse.' The judge said the minimum term would have been 19 years, but she had subtracted the six years and 211 days Ngaba had already served in custody.
