Joanna Skrodzka jailed for not helping brain damaged baby
A woman has been jailed for failing to seek help for a baby girl who was beaten and left with brain damage.
Grzegorz Lis, 35, was jailed for 13 years and nine months on Monday for beatings which also left the eight-week old girl blind and deaf.
On Friday at St Albans Crown Court, Lis's partner Joanna Skrodzka, 22, from Hemel Hempstead, was sent to prison for not getting medical help for the girl.
She was given a two years and nine months sentence.
The court heard that the baby, who was born in January and cannot be named, probably suffered the injuries on 1-2 March this year.
Jane Bickerstaff QC, prosecuting, said both of the baby's legs were broken in one of several attacks by Lis and that she had also suffered a fractured skull caused by a massive impact injury.
There was evidence that the baby had been violently shaken in a separate incident which caused bleeding on the brain and left her starved of oxygen - resulting in her blindness.
The court heard that the baby had also been severely bitten on her left forearm.
It was not until the week after the attacks were thought to have taken place that staff at Watford General Hospital saw the baby for the first time.
She was immediately transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Passing sentence, Recorder Amanda Tipples told Skrodzka: "You failed to get any medical help for her even though you were aware something terrible had happened to her and she was unwell."
The recorder said a "right thinking person" would not have waited more than five minutes once it was realised the child was ill.
During Skrodzka's trial, expert evidence was given by a doctor who said that in 600 cases he had been involved in, this was one of the worst cases of brain damage he had ever seen where the child had survived.
The court heard that the child was now incontinent because of her injuries and will need 24-hour care for the rest of her life.