Vic: 11 years jail for father who killed stepdaughter, 3,

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-2007
Vic: 11 years jail for father who killed stepdaughter, 3,

MELBOURNE, Dec 6 AAP - A Melbourne man has been jailed for 11 years for killing his
three-year-old stepdaughter in a fit of rage.

Liliana Lam died after Phong Gia Quach pushed her against a bathroom sink at their
house in Noble Park, in southeast Melbourne, on May 3, 2006, after she had vomited on
herself.

Liliana died from a ruptured mesentery - attached to the abdomen wall - causing her
to bleed to death.

Quach, 23, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

In sentencing Quach, Victorian Supreme Court judge Bernard Teague said Liliana was
defenceless in her stepfather's hands.

He said the sustained punishment the toddler endured was more insidious than other
forms of assault and fathers and stepfathers must be discouraged from abusing their power.

"The unintended killing of small children in these circumstances is a product of the
children being small and powerless and their fathers or father figures being big and powerful,"

Justice Teague told the court.

Quach was sentenced to 11 years in jail with a non-parole period of eight years.

AAP ce/szp/gfr/bwl

KEYWORD: QUACH (PIX AVAILABLE)

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