Babysitting aunt who shook her seven-month-old niece to death receives lenient sentence after tot’s PARENTS begged judge to go easy
Mum-of-three Chuanfang Zheng, 31, jailed for just six years after mercy plea from family of baby Phoebe Guo
A BABYSITTING aunt who shook her seven-month-old niece to death when she would not stop crying has been jailed for just six years — after the baby's father pleaded for mercy.
Chuanfang Zheng, 31, flipped and killed baby Phoebe Guo just 30 minutes after being left in charge while the tot's mum Ling Ling worked at the family's Chinese takeaway.
Zheng then lied about what happened and even tried to blame the baby's mother for her death, a court heard.
But astonishingly, after she was found guilty of manslaughter her family begged the judge to be lenient so she could be reunited with her own children sooner, .
Passing sentence yesterday, Judge Nicholas Dean QC said he was “moved” by a statement from Phoebe’s father, Hon Gli Guo, expressing the whole family’s love for the defendant.
The judge said: “Hon Gli Guo urges me to exercise compassion in these terms. ‘On behalf of my family I sincerely plead to the Honourable Judge to be lenient when sentencing Chuanfang Zheng, so that she can reunite with her family and to be with her children again as soon as possible’.”
The judge said he initially considered jailing Zheng for eight years, but cut it to six to reflect the plea made by the victim's family.
Little Phoebe suffered "a catastrophic and ultimately fatal injury with significant bleeding on the brain and behind the eyes," her trial heard.
Experts said the tot's non-accidental injury was caused by "severe" and "repetitive" force with a "rotational, acceleration-deceleration" - also known as shaken baby syndrome.
Zheng was caring for her own three children, then aged five, three and eight months, when she "lost control" and violently shook Phoebe at her home in Lutterworth, Leics.