Cruel couple jailed for killing baby daughter
Leanne Labonte, 20, and Dennis Henry, 39, were found guilty of manslaughter and child cruelty by an Old Bailey jury in less than four hours. Labonte was given 10 yearsâ detention and Henry was jailed for 12 years.
They blamed each other for causing the 64 injuries on the little girlâs body and of starving her. Ainleeâs lifeless body was found on a table at the coupleâs squalid council flat in Plaistow, east London, on January 7 this year.
Labonte wept as she was sentenced. She looked up to the public gallery and shouted âlook after my sonsâ to a member of her family.
The courtroom was silent as the verdicts were delivered. Labonte was sentenced to 10 yearsâ youth detention for manslaughter and eight years concurrently for child cruelty.
Henry showed no emotion as he was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter and nine years concurrently for cruelty. Mr Justice Leveson told them there was âoverwhelming evidenceâ of their cruelty to Ainlee and that the âonly proper conclusion was that you were in it together.â
The judge told Henry and Labonte that Ainlee had simply âlost the will to liveâ after enduring terrible abuse from them since she was two weeksâ old.
He said: âShe was burned with a cigarette as she was burnt on more than a dozen occasions.
Ainlee was abused by her parents despite the involvement of police, social services and health workers. She was allowed to live with parents who had criminal records and were labelled the Neighbours from Hell, despite showing signs of not flourishing.
After her death, horrified doctors found she had been used to stub cigarettes out on and her feet had been scalded in boiling water.
Five months before her death Ainlee weighed 22.5lbs (10.25 kilos), but on her death on January 7 she weighed just 21.1lbs (9.6 kilos).
She had 64 injuries, including third degree burns. There were 10 cigarette burns on her legs and buttocks.
