Gold Coast mother Heidi Strbak was on Monday sentenced to nine years prison for the manslaughter of her four-year-old son Tyrell Cobb in 2009.
“I loved him more than I could possibly describe,” Strbak, 36, said as her sentence was handed down, the ABC reports. “When he was taken away from me, I lost my life as well.”
Four-year-old Tyrell was ‘taken’ from his mother over the course of a weekend. He left kindergarten on Friday, May 22, 2009 never to return. When he was taken to hospital two days later, on Sunday night, his body was covered with more than 70 bruises. He was unconscious. There were bruises on his ear, and a cigarette burn on his ankle.
He died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
“The last hours of his life must have been miserable and painful,” Justice Applegarth told the court, News Corp reports.
“I have not caused the injuries that I have been blamed for. I believe it’s a mistake,” Strbak told the courtroom.
The court heard that Strbak hit Tyrell across the face on Friday evening after picking him up from daycare, because he’d vomited. And that she wouldn’t take him to receive medical help on Saturday, even though he was unwell, and went instead to pick up cannabis.
Top Comments
She didn't love him. I don't care what she said. To treat him like that, she didn't even see him as a person. How could you strike your child and then watch him die because you are too gutless to go to the hospital?
I also think that this partner has a lot more to answer for. Woefully short sentences for both of them.
That poor little boy and that poor father. I really hope in time he forgives himself, he had no way of knowing that the death of his son was going to be the outcome of that call