Mum denied sentence reduction over killing of son Tyrell Cobb
Queensland mother Heidi Strbak has failed to shave time off her jail sentence for killing her four-year-old son Tyrell Cobb.
Strbak appealed her nine-year jail sentence on the grounds she did not inflict the blunt force injuries to Tyrell’s abdomen that killed him in May 2009.
She called for a three-year reduction.
Strbak pleaded guilty to manslaughter in late 2017 after admitting she failed to get Tyrell medical treatment for his fatal injuries.
But whether she or her then-de facto partner Matthew Scown inflicted the deadly blows, which cut open his small intestine, was contested over a six-day sentencing hearing.
Scown received a suspended four-year sentence for Tyrell’s manslaughter after the court found while he also failed to seek medical help, he was not responsible for the injuries.
Justice Peter Applegarth found Strbak likely punched Tyrell in the stomach and struck him again when he vomited bile multiple times over the course of a weekend, causing his eventual death.
Scown testified seeing Strbak abuse the boy, particularly when she was unable to obtain marijuana, although not inflicting the fatal blow.
He was found to have suffered 81 injuries.
But her lawyer, Saul Holt QC, argued Scown was not a credible witness and it was clear he had hurt the child, including kicking him for urinating on the floor.
“(Scown) was a person who had that necessary motive to lie,” Mr Holt told the appeal court last year.
Mr Holt said even if the circumstantial case against Strbak was stronger than that of Scown, it did not prove she was responsible for her son’s death.
The appeal court found no error in Justice Applegarth’s conclusion and the appeal was rejected on Tuesday.
Strbak’s sentence included a non-parole period of four years.
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