Lesley Dunford in court charged with daughter's murder
A woman has been remanded in custody charged with the murder of her three-year-old daughter in East Sussex more than seven years ago.
Lesley Dunford, 32, is accused of fatally injuring daughter Lucy at the family home in February 2004.
Ms Dunford, now of Windermere Close, Exeter, appeared before Hastings Magistrates Court.
She was remanded in custody and will make a preliminary appearance at Lewes Crown Court on Thursday.
Died from asphyxia
Lucy died on 2 February 2004, at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings, where she had been taken by air ambulance from the family home in Pelwood Road, Camber.
An inquest was adjourned in 2009, when East Sussex coroner Alan Craze could not rule out the possibility Lucy had been unlawfully killed.
Three post-mortem examinations were conducted on the youngster and they found she died from asphyxia caused by the forced blockage of her airways.
Ms Dunford was arrested at her home in Devon on Tuesday and brought to Brighton where she was charged by Sussex Police detectives.