Vic: Grieving mother angry at sentence for daughter's killer

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-2007
Vic: Grieving mother angry at sentence for daughter's killer

By Charisse Ede

MELBOURNE, Dec 6 AAP - A grieving mother whose partner killed her three-year-old daughter
in a fit of anger is outraged he was not charged with murdering her pride and joy.

Dieu Lam said her daughter, Liliana, was a defenceless toddler but died because Phong
Gia Quach got angry that she would not listen to him.

"He totally wrecked my life and I don't have my daughter, and my daughter was my joy
and pride, my everything and now she's gone and (I) just can't live without her," she
said.

"He should have got charged for murder for what he did."

Quach, 23, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Liliana, his stepdaughter, on May 3, 2006.

Liliana died after Quach pushed her against a bathroom sink and onto the bathroom floor
at their house in Noble Park, in Melbourne's south-east, after she had vomited on herself.

She died from a ruptured mesentery - attached to the abdomen wall - causing her to
bleed to death.

The Victorian Supreme Court today jailed him for 11 years with a non-parole period
of eight years.

In sentencing Quach, Justice Bernard Teague said Liliana was defenceless in her stepfather's
hands and had become scared of him.

Justice Teague said he was troubled that Quach, who was addicted to amphetamines and
ice, felt that because he had been accused by Liliana's grandparents of assaulting her,
he "might as well do it".

He said the sustained punishment the toddler endured was more insidious than other
forms of assault and fathers and stepfathers must be discouraged from abusing their power.

Liliana's tearful mother said it was wrong that Quach was not charged with murder.

"I think it's bullshit that he got manslaughter and he only got eight years, I don't
think it's right," she said.

"I don't think it's fair that my daughter's defenceless, she can't friggin' help herself
and he said that he got angry and hit my daughter because she wouldn't listen.

"But kids do that, kids don't know any better."

Quach wrote an apology to his victim's family, but Ms Lam said she wasn't interested
in reading it.

"(An) apology is not going to make me feel any better, it's not going to bring back
my daughter, there's no point in saying sorry," she said.

The Victorian government this week introduced legislation creating a new office of
child homicide that reflects the seriousness of killing children.

The new offence will have the same 20-year maximum penalty as manslaughter but will
underline that the victim was a child of six years or under, enabling the court to impose
sentences closer to the maximum.

AAP ce/gfr/jt/bwl

KEYWORD: QUACH NIGHTLEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

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