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A man who smothered his baby daughter to death could be released from prison as early as next year.

Shayne Robert Quinn, 29, from the Gold Coast, violently shook four-month-old Courtney Quinn and placed his hand over her face while she was sucking on a dummy in September 2013, reports nine news.

Quinn told triple zero he had woken to find his daughter had stopped breathing, but she was already cold and blue by the time he took her to hospital.

Pathologists found the child also had dozens of old injuries, including 34 rib fractures consistent with being “squeezed”, a broken arm and a fractured leg.

Quinn was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty earlier this year to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

He was sentenced in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday to eight years in jail but with time already spent in custody, he will be eligible for parole in March 2017.

The court heard Quinn’s then-partner and the child’s mother Jasmin Harris was sentenced in June to two years and six months jail for child cruelty.

In the week prior to her death, Harris failed to take the baby to the hospital after a GP noticed the child had a broken arm, which Quinn admitted causing.

The court heard Quinn was struggling to cope with caring for the baby while he was unemployed and Harris was working as an escort.

“This was not some momentary lack of judgment, it was a deliberate act,” Chief Justice Catherine Holmes said on Friday.

Justice Holmes told Quinn he had done a terrible thing but there was nothing in his life to indicate he would do something similar again.

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  • A child is a special gift from God to be cherished, not abused. If these people did not want the child, give it to someone who really wants a child. The punishment should be murder and put away for life because they have taken a child’s life. Our justice system has a lot to be desired.

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  • This seems an inadequate punishment .

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  • there really is no justice in this world

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  • I know stress does get to most people but to take it out on a baby is not fair. Someone who can not fight back and has no voice. These people should be banned from having any children in their care.

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  • I really don’t understand how people can be so evil. If they did not want the child, they could have given her up for adoption.

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  • People who do this to babies and children should be sterilised an never allowed to have children again. It is horrible. Every parent has issues when it comes to dealing with children/unemployment etc but not everyone kills their child!

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  • disgusting behaviour from both parents – shame that the treatment they dished out to their little girl couldn’t be done to both of them!

    what a horrible existence that little girl had in her short 4months of life – may she rest in peace little angel

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  • A horrible story,poor little girl.

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  • Why did these torturers get such a light sentence?

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  • The charge should…not…have been reduced. I hope charges were made for child abuse as an additional charges. He should get life… and…I mean life.
    Surely the Mother must have noticed how distressed her baby was , investigated and rushed the baby to hospital by ambulance long before he killed her. The Mother’s charges aren’t severe enough either. She at least was charged with child abuse (cruelty).

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  • What horrible parents, poor baby girl! RIP

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  • Little girl! :-(

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  • Unbelievable he might come free next year already !! This makes me sick…

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