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| Baby force-feeding death: Mother Gloria Dwomoh jailed | Baby force-feeding death: Mother Gloria Dwomoh jailed |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| A mother who force-fed her baby girl who later died has been jailed. | |
| Gloria Dwomoh, a 31-year-old nurse from Walthamstow, London, was jailed for three years after being convicted last month of allowing or causing the death. | Gloria Dwomoh, a 31-year-old nurse from Walthamstow, London, was jailed for three years after being convicted last month of allowing or causing the death. |
| The 10-month-old, named in court as Diamond, was forced to take solid foods from the age of six months. She died in March 2010. | |
| The Old Bailey heard Diamond died from pneumonia caused by food in her lungs that had blocked her airways. | |
| Dwomoh, who worked at St Thomas's Hospital near Waterloo, had denied the charge. | Dwomoh, who worked at St Thomas's Hospital near Waterloo, had denied the charge. |
| The trial heard Dwomoh was obsessed with Diamond's weight and fed her liquidised food, including meat and cereals, using a jug when she was weaning the child onto solid food. | |
| 'Misguided obsession' | |
| During the trial Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, said the food went down the "wrong way" for months and the spout of the jug was placed into the girl's mouth to "prevent her closing it". | During the trial Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, said the food went down the "wrong way" for months and the spout of the jug was placed into the girl's mouth to "prevent her closing it". |
| "If you have a child who is distressed and choking, you do not carry on," he said. | "If you have a child who is distressed and choking, you do not carry on," he said. |
| Trevor Burke QC, for Dwomoh, said: "She has endured the loss of her child for over a year. She has been punished enough." | |
| He presented the court with a 1,000-signature petition from family and friends pleading for mercy, and asked the judge to impose a suspended sentence. | |
| Her supporters had demonstrated outside the the Old Bailey. | |
| But the Common Serjeant of London, Judge Brian Barker, described Dwomoh's actions as a "misguided obsession". | |
| Dwomoh told the court that she and her siblings had been fed the same way by her mother in Ghana. | |
| Giving evidence during the trial, she told the jury: "I didn't do anything to her. I didn't do anything at all to hurt her." |