‘Manipulative’ mum jailed for child’s murder

A “devious, manipulative and selfish” young mother will serve at least 24 years behind bars after brutally stamping her toddler daughter to death in the child’s bedroom.

Kathryn Smith, 23, was jailed for life following her conviction for murder after the savage attack on 21-month-old Ayeeshia Jane Smith at the family home in Staffordshire on May 1, 2014.

Mrs Justice Geraldine Andrews, sentencing a weeping Smith at Birmingham Crown Court, said: “You are a devious, manipulative, selfish, young woman who would stop at nothing to get your own way.