A “hot-headed” young man who murdered his girlfriend’s baby daughter has been jailed for a minimum of 18 years.
Davey Everson, 23, was said to have “used inappropriate and excessive force” during the short life of three-month-old Millie-Rose Burdett, and had become “riled” that the child had begun to look like her biological father.
Millie-Rose died on January 11 2019 having been admitted to hospital the previous month with serious injuries including a bleed on the brain sustained while Everson was feeding her alone at home in Rickmansworth.
The baby was later found to have suffered 12 fractured ribs and two leg fractures, both existing injuries from before the assault, when she died, having been in a coma for nearly a month.
Millie-Rose’s mother, 25-year-old Kirsty Burdett, was handed a six-year jail term for causing or allowing the death of a child, having heard she tried to cover for Everson.
Sentencing the pair at the Old Bailey on Friday, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “One of the things that upset you, Everson, was that Millie-Rose was beginning to resemble her biological father, and that riled you.
“Being a father figure to the child was no longer an attractive prospect.”
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The court heard Burdett was in the bathroom while Everson was alone feeding Millie-Rose during a 20-minute period on December 15 2018, when the baby suddenly “went floppy”.
Prosecutors said it was likely he injured her by shaking or throwing her against a surface, such as a cot, in anger.
However, Everson never explained how the baby suffered fatal injuries, telling emergency services she choked and stopped breathing during a feed.
The judge said: “This was a sustained assault on a small baby.
“You lied to police and said she lost consciousness while you were feeding or winding her.
“The truth is that there is no reason for her to have lost consciousness, except for assault.”
Addressing Millie-Rose’s other injuries, inflicted before she was fatally assaulted, the judge added: “You caused her acute and lasting pain for half of her short life by breaking 12 of her ribs.”
She accused Everson, who denied murder at trial, of expressing no remorse.
The labourer, who was said to be of low intelligence, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 18 years, less the 203 days spent on remand, before he can be considered for parole.
The judge said Burdett was “in an intense emotional relationship” that affected her judgment, having got together with the volatile Everson while she was pregnant with Millie-Rose.
Everson, of Edmonton in north London, and Burdett were also handed four and two-month jail sentences, respectively, for child cruelty.
Both defendants wept at various times during the hearing.
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