Mother jailed for toddler's 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 yesterday.

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 yesterday, the Press Association reported.

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

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