Woman who starved daughter gets jail time
HALIFAX - A Halifax woman who nearly starved her baby daughter to death has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Susan Elizabeth MacDonnell pleaded guilty in 2011 to aggravated assault and failing to provide the necessities of life to her then one-year-old adopted daughter, Rachel.
Judge Kevin Coady of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court also sentenced the 44-year-old woman to three years probation.
MacDonnell had apologized for her actions earlier this week during a sentencing hearing.
On Monday, a forensic psychiatrist testified that MacDonnell deprived her daughter of food in an attempt to showcase her devotion as a mother.
The court heard MacDonnell starved the girl for an extended period of time and then tampered with her feeding tube at a Halifax hospital, where the child was being treated for dehydration and malnutrition in early 2010.
