Mother Jailed For Death Of Toddler In Fire

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Sentencing Brown, judge Peter Ross said the toddler would have been absolutely terrified in the moments before her death.

A mother whose 22-month-old daughter died in a house fire after being left at home alone was jailed for seven-and-a-half years on Thursday.

The toddler, Jodie Ann Brown, died from smoke inhalation after an electrical fire broke out at her Coventry home in July last year.

Her mother Michelle Brown, 37, was found guilty of "causing or allowing" her death and perverting the course of justice at Coventry Crown Court on Thursday, the Press Association reported.

During a two-week trial it emerged that mother-of-five Brown left her young daughter unsupervised in an upstairs bedroom while she attended a court hearing relating to one of her other children.

Brown has three children living in England and two more in her native Jamaica.

Jurors heard that Jodie Ann was trapped in the unventilated room for more than three hours when the blaze, linked to a faulty television, broke out.

Sentencing Brown, judge Peter Ross said the toddler would have been absolutely terrified in the moments before her death.

"I suppose the only mercy about it was this, that it was a small fire, that Jodie will have quietly fallen asleep on that bed as the poisoning from the carbon monoxide overbore her and ultimately killed her."