A former childcare worker who shook her infant son to death because she was frustrated will serve her sentence on home detention.
Jennifer Nicole Kennison, 31, was sentenced to three years and three months imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and eight months.
Supreme Court Justice David Lovell ordered she serve the sentence on home detention, PerthNow reported.
Jennifer Kennison (pictured) should not be allowed to serve her jail sentence for fatally shaking her baby boy to death on home detention, a court heard Thursday
‘You were Enzo’s mother — he was entitled to rely on you, above all others, for care and protection,’ She said druing the sentencing.
The court heard that Kennsion had been frustrated because baby Enzo, who was born prematurely and had only developed to the equivalent of a three-wee-old, was crying and would not settle.
It is unclear exactly what happened in the moments before Enzo’s death. The baby had fatal head injuries and broken ribs but Kennison refused to explain what exactly took place.
She had pleading guilty to one count of manslaughter over the 2016 death of the three-month-old boy.
Justice Lovell said the difficulty in Kennison’s case was that she had not confessed to how he got such severe injuries yet buy all counts seemed like a loving mother.
‘For reasons unclear, I find on this occasion, you lost control of yourself — no doubt because of the fact he was crying and not settling.
Prosecutor Emma Wildman told the court that the circumstances of Kennison’s (pictured) offending were simply too serious for her to be allowed home detention
The court was told that Kennison ‘showed no remorse’ over shaking of her child at their Adelaide home left him with a brain injury and 16 broken ribs (Kennison’s home pictured)
‘You shook him violently, so violently that he died from the head injury that resulted from that shaking.’
He said that Kennison was remorseful for what she had done.
The court had previously been told that she had not come to terms with what she had done.
Prosecutor Emma Wildman had told the court that the circumstances of the offending were simply too serious for home detention.
But Justice Loveell said there would be no risk to other children should she be placed on home detention.