Mum free on bail after admitting to suffocating her baby daughter to death
A Melbourne mother who admitted to suffocating her baby girl and dumping her body in a creek has walked free on bail.
Little Sanaya Sahib was just 14 months old when she was killed.
On Friday - her 24th birthday - her mother Sofina Nikat pleaded guilty to infanticide.
The court heard that Nikat was suffering post-natal depression when she took Sanaya to a Heidelberg park in 2016.
After playing with her for a while, she smothered Sanaya to death and left her face down in a creek.
She then told police a man of African appearance, who was barefoot and smelled of alcohol, had snatched her.
As the horrifying details were read out, Sanaya's father cried.
"My life will never be the same," he said.
"I lost my daughter in such a horrific way. I imagine her in the back seat of my car, if she was with me she would be safe."
In the months leading up to the death Nikat was told by a Fijian priest that her baby was possessed.
He sent her holy water to help "cleanse" her child, but as her depression spiralled out of control a cousin heard her yelling at the baby girl: "Why did you have to be born? Why do you have to make my life so miserable?"
Her lawyers told Justice Lex Lasry her depression was inflamed by a marriage breakdown and alleged domestic violence.
"This is a vulnerable woman who is sick," her lawyers said.
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When she finally admitted her guilt to police, she told them her daughter was in "a better place".
Sofina Nikat has no support network in Australia and her family remain in Fiji.
She will now live in a women's refuge until she is sentenced.
