The Evil That Men Do

This is why the death penalty exists:

A woman who watched her seven-year-old daughter starve to death and did nothing to help her was today jailed for life for her murder.

The girl, who can only be known as Ebony for legal reasons, deteriorated from a chubby, healthy child to "a skin-covered skeleton" after long-term neglect, the judge said.

Malnourished and dehydrated, she died from starvation in the bedroom of her Hawks Nest home in November 2007, weighing just nine kilograms.

The court heard medical evidence that Ebony was so physically wasted she would most likely have been unable to stand, sit or swallow food in her final days. She would probably have been comatose before she died. But a simple phone call to triple-0 could have saved her life.

Justice Hulme said pictures taken of Ebony after her death "are the most horrific images of a deceased child imaginable".

He said she was especially vulnerable, suffering from autism and behavioural problems, but her parents denied her medical attention, educational opportunities and "simple childhood pleasures".

She was kept prisoner in her filthy bedroom for long periods and was excluded from family celebrations.

Her parents were "both so absorbed in their own lives that they did not care for her", Justice Hulme said.

I cannot imagine any justifiable reason for leaving such monsters alive.