The mother of Star Hobson who allowed her toddler daughter to be murdered by her lover is ‘upset’ by calls for her eight-year sentence to be reviewed.
Frankie Smith, 20, phoned her grandfather David Fawcett – who is one of the two relatives who speaks to her – earlier this week to moan about her jail term after the Attorney General urged a review into the ‘lenient’ sentence.
She was given just eight years in prison – meaning she could be out in four – after a judge reduced her sentence to account for the ‘burden’ of knowing she played a significant role in the death of her 16-month-old daughter.
Smith’s partner Savannah Brockhill, 28, was jailed for a minimum of 25 years and given a mandatory life sentence for murdering the child, who bled to death after being attacked at home in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in September last year.
David, 61, told ‘She phoned me on Thursday and she’s a little upset because they’re reviewing the sentence. People don’t think eight years is long enough.
‘She’s upset about it, to be honest. She’s lost a daughter and has to live with that for the rest of her life, that’s all she talks about.’
Health minister Gillian Keegan previously suggested Attorney General Suella Braverman could send the case to the Court of Appeal so the sentence of Star’s mother could be reviewed.
Ms Keegan, whose brief includes care, told LBC that it ‘doesn’t sound like’ justice that Smith was handed such a short jail term, adding: ‘It doesn’t sound enough, as a human being, it doesn’t sound enough.’
Star’s family had last night slammed the ‘staggeringly soft’ sentences handed out and urged the Attorney General to review the case under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office has now confirmed they received a request for the sentences to be examined, and law officers have 28 days from the date the terms were given to consider the case and make a decision.
Frank Smith, 68, Star’s great-grandfather, said he hoped her killers would ‘rot in jail’ and asked: ‘Is that all Star’s life is worth? Frankie will be out in four years – how is that justice?’
