A woman who was thrown in jail for injecting a child with human faeces faces three more years behind bars after Court of Appeal judges increased her prison sentence.
Elizabeth Faragher, 43, admitted one count of cruelty to a person under 16 and five counts of administering a poison or noxious substance with intent, receiving a jail term of five years and 10 months at a trial in Preston Crown Court back in July of this year.
However her sentence was declared “unduly lenient” at a Court of Appeal hearing on Friday (October 21) and was increased to eight years after it was referred by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
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Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Dove and Mrs Justice Steyn, called the horrifying case “difficult and distressing”.
(Image: Lancs Live/MEN Media)
“We simply cannot describe this offence of cruelty as anything other than serious, indeed very serious,” Lord Justive Edis said, adding there had been “attempts to cause the child harm” which had then exposed them “to a very serious risk of illness and further grave harm.”
Nicholas Hearn from the AGO told judges the original sentence “did not reflect the cumulative seriousness of the offences.”
Through her vile campaign of abuse, Faragher caused her victim “extreme pain and distress,” the court said.
The child has been left with “deep muscle scarring and multiple scars” and the violence meant she had to undergo frequent “painful” and “invasive” medical examinations including a bone marrow extraction.
(Image: Getty Images/Score RF)
The AGO said in a written reference to the court that the victim was found to have infections across their body caused by “faecal organisms” that doctors “could not identify a medical explanation” for.
Later, medical professionals worked out that the infections had been caused by Faragher injecting faecal matter into the unwitting victim’s body.
Faragher has not attempted to explain her actions, but Rosalind Emsley-Smith, representing the defendant, said the court should take her “vulnerability and fragility” into account during sentencing.
The defendant is known to have had issues with alcohol abuse, drinking up to two bottles of vodka a day.
Faragher had also struggled with bereavement prior to the offense.
Following the hearing, Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson said of the case: “This was a deeply upsetting case of child cruelty and it was clear to me that Elizabeth Faragher’s shocking actions warranted a stronger prison sentence.
“Today’s verdict shows that all forms of cruelty to children will be met with the strongest possible punishment.”
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