Woman jailed for 15 years for shaking her four-month-old baby to death
Melissa Wilband, 28, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her daughter, Lexi, who collapsed at the family home in Newent in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, during the first Covid lockdown.
Tests showed Lexi suffered bleeding on her brain, which was probably caused by being violently shaken shortly before she collapsed and on at least one earlier occasion.
Bristol crown court heard Wilband became pregnant with Lexi while separated from her then-partner, Jack Wheeler, and tried to deceive him into believing he was the father by presenting him with a fake paternity test.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saini said Lexi had been a healthy baby and he was satisfied Wilband had shaken her on two occasions.
He said: 'After the evening meal you were bathing Lexi and you shook Lexi, and immediately after this she went floppy. Your shaking of Lexi led to severe bleeding in her brain.
'I am sure on the evidence that Lexi had been shaken by you in another, less violent, incident before that Easter Sunday.
'Only you will know why you acted in the way you did. It is hard to imagine the pain that Lexi must have suffered both from the past violence and the violence that led to her death. She would have cried out in anguish.'
Wheeler, 31, had also been accused of manslaughter but the charge was dropped during the trial. The jury found him not guilty of causing or allowing Lexi's death in April 2020.
Giving evidence in court, Wilband described how she had been in a relationship with Wheeler for about three years but Lexi was conceived with another man when they had separated.
The court heard she faked a DNA test during her pregnancy, stating Wheeler was '100%' the 'farther' [sic] of her then unborn child. He became suspicious because of the misspelling.
After Lexi was born, a genuine DNA test found Wheeler was not biologically related to the baby. In court, Wilband admitted faking the document, telling the jury: 'I wanted him to be Lexi's dad.'
Lexi died at Bristol children's hospital, with a nurse holding her hand, on 18 April – six days after she collapsed.
The court heard Wilband was aware that her baby might die through the night but did not stay at her bedside.
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