By Kim Arlington
A couple who failed to seek medical treatment for their baby daughter, who was severely ill with eczema before an infection killed her, wept in the dock today as they were jailed for her manslaughter.
Thomas Sam, 42, and his wife Manju, 37, were convicted in the NSW Supreme Court over the death of nine-month-old Gloria, with a jury accepting they were guilty of criminal negligence.
Thomas Sam and his wife Manju Sam.Credit: Peter Rae
Sentencing Thomas Sam to a minimum of six years in jail and Manju Sam to at least four, Justice Peter Johnson said Gloria was subjected to significant pain over an extended period and her parents' failure to seek proper help for her amounted to cruelty.
"Gloria suffered helplessly and unnecessarily ... from a condition that was treatable," the judge said.
Gloria was happy and healthy for the first four months of her life, but then developed eczema.
The court heard that, despite medical advice to seek specialist treatment, her parents repeatedly failed to make or attend appointments.
Instead, her father - who taught and practised homeopathy - treated her himself.
By the time her weakened immune system succumbed to an infection in May 2002, her black hair had turned white and her body was covered with an oozing rash.
She died three days after being admitted to the Children's Hospital at Randwick.
Medical experts told the trial that, had she been given medical attention a week earlier, she probably could have been saved.
Justice Johnson said Thomas Sam displayed "an arrogant approach to what he perceived to be the superior benefits of homeopathy compared with conventional medicine".
The judge said that, while Sam's wife deferred to her husband, she had "failed the child in her most important duty, with fatal results".
It was overwhelmingly clear that homeopathy would not suffice in dealing with the severity of Gloria's condition, Justice Johnson said, and there was a "wide chasm" between her parents' approach and the action a reasonable parent would have taken in those circumstances.
"The omission of the offenders to seek proper assistance for her may be characterised accurately as cruelty," he said.
He jailed Thomas Sam for a maximum eight years, and Manju Sam for a maximum five years and four months.
The weeping couple embraced in the dock before they were led into custody.