A mother has been found guilty of killing her 10-week-old daughter six days after the girl was discharged into her parents’ care against the advice of healthcare professionals.
Lily-Mai Hurrell Saint George suffered 18 rib fractures, a fatal head injury and a leg fracture hours after a home visit from a social worker on 31 January 2018.
Her mother, 25-year-old Lauren Saint George is alleged to have lost her temper before violently shaking Lily-Mai and pulling and twisting her leg.
The 10-week-old died at Great Ormond Street Hospital on 2 February, when surgeons turned off her life support machine due to the extent of her brain damage.
Despite professionals at Barnet Hospital warning she was at risk of neglect, Haringey social services decided six days before the attack that Lily-Mai should be transferred to the sole care of her parents, Saint George and Darren Hurrell, also aged 25.
The Metropolitan Police initially said there was insufficient evidence to charge her parents but they both faced trial over Lily-Mai’s death after a coroner last year ruled she was unlawfully killed.
Mr Justice Spencer found Hurrell had no case to answer for charges of murder and manslaughter and threw out a charge of causing or allowing the death of a child against both parents.
A jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for more than 11 hours to find Saint George, of Enfield in north London, not guilty of murder and manslaughter.
However, she was found guilty of a charge of infanticide by a majority of 10 to one.
The charge is an alternative verdict to murder where a mother kills her child while her mind is disturbed by a failure to recover from the effects of childbirth.
Saint George and Hurrell, of Alvaston in Derby, were both cleared of a separate charge of child cruelty.
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