By Belinda Feek, Open Justice reporter of
Photo: Composite photo / NZME
A teen stepmum who inflicted such severe fatal abdominal injuries on a toddler that it split the girl's pancreas in two has appealed to have her jail sentence halved.
Jessica Lee Rose Mulford was jailed for five years and seven months in the High Court at Hamilton last year after being found guilty of the manslaughter of 2-year-old Harlee-Rose Niven.
She was also found guilty of injuring with intent to injure after strangling the child five months before she died in April 2022, but was convicted and discharged by Justice Neil Campbell.
Harlee-Rose died of "catastrophic" abdominal injuries in Waikato Hospital after Mulford found her unresponsive and blue in her be
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