By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
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Horror: Michelle Smith has been found guilty of her murdering her 42-day old baby
A mother found guilty of poisoning her own baby with a powerful pain killer murdered out of a craving for attention, a judge told her today.
Michelle Smith, was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum 12 years for the murder of six-week-old Amy.
A shellshocked Smith was led away in tears today still protesting 'But I did not do it. I did not do it.'
Moments before, a jury found her unanimously guilty of murdering the defenceless baby at home in Morriston, Swansea, south Wales, in November 2007.
Smith, aged 34, poisoned baby Amy three times before finally managing to kill her.
She crushed tablets of the powerful painkiller dihydrocodeine-prescribed only to adults-and fed it to Amy in her bottle feed.
On the first occasion doctors could not find anything wrong with her and sent her home.
The second time she was rushed to hospital urine tests revealed dihydrocodeine-but the results were not passed on to the doctors and Amy was again released.
But the third time it happened Amy could not be revived and she died aged six weeks.
A post mortem revealed the presence of the drug and it was only then that the earlier urine test results became known.
He left Smith sobbing with the warning that he would be looking at 15 years as a starting point in setting a minimum term.
Passing sentence he told her her actions involved a 'substantial premeditation'.
Out in the open: South Wales Police Detective Sergeant Justin Evans reading a statement outside Swansea Crown Court after Smith was found guilty of murdering her child
He added: 'The giving of this drug to Amy required, as it must have done, the crushing of tablet or tablets involving a significant degree or planning and premeditation.'
He said Amy was young and vulnerable and that Smith's actions were 'a gross abuse of your position as her mother'.
'In all probability you were in some way craving and seeking attention by presenting Amy to the doctors at hospital.'
The jury heard that as police investigations continued Smith sent her father in law a text message saying she was going to give herself up. She walked into Neath police station and told an officer, 'I did it. I did it. I killed Amy.'
Smith, a mother of three, signed a police officer's notebook confirming what she had said but only five minutes later retracted her 'confession.'
On November 9, 2007, health visitor Gillian Davies had found Amy Louise to be in 'thriving and immaculate' good health.
Scene: Swansea Crown Court, where Smith was found guilty of poisoning and murdering her own daughter
But just four hours later Smith's husband Christopher came home from work to find the baby had collapsed.
Doctors could not revive her and she was declared dead from respiratory failure a few hours later.
Doctors could not revive her and she was declared dead from respiratory failure a few hours later.
Mr Justice Spencer said it would never be known why Smith should kill a helpless, vulnerable baby. But it appeared that Smith had been 'craving and seeking' the attention of doctors by presenting her daughter as a sick child.
Smith had not been suffering from post natal depression, he added, and neither had Amy Louise been a difficult baby who had driven her to the end of her tether.
He said it was of profound regret that the results of the urine test carried out on the second occasion that Amy Louise had been taken to hospital had not been passed on to doctors.
'It was a warning sign that was missed,' he added.
The judge said the fact that Smith had poisoned Amy Louise before giving her the fatal dose-using tablets prescribed to her husband-showed premeditation and planning.
The painkillers were so strong, he said, that a single tablet would have been enough to kill a six week old baby.
After her arrest Smith denied administering any medicine to Amy 'not even Calpol.'
Following the verdict Det Sgt Justin Evans said, 'Amy Louise was just six weeks old when she was killed by the one person who should have done more than any other to keep her safe.
'Michelle Smith's actions have left a family without a much loved little girl.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2169842/Mother-poisoned-baby-powerful-painkiller-craving-attention-jailed-12-years.html#ixzz2A48GCXmR
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