Michelle’s fury at 15-month sentence

A mum who was burgled while her baby was dying in hospital has been left numb by the soft sentence handed to the burglar.

Michelle Greenwood’s home was trashed and precious mementos of her daughter Laila snatched while she kept a vigil at her hospital bed.

Devastated Michelle, 32, returned home from the hospital to find tiny Laila’s clothes and a laptop containing hundreds of pictures of her gone after Barry Smith ransacked her home.

Most of the treasured possessions of her daughter’s short life have never been recovered.

However, Michelle was left distraught when callous Smith was jailed for just 15 months.

“I have been devastated by it,” said the mum-of-three from Morecambe, Lancashire. It was all I had left of her. It’s all gone and they are things I cannot replace.

“I am pleased he has been sent to prison but it does not reflect what he has done or compensate for it.

“It is just so hard to deal with.”

Laila was born in September 2012, but two weeks later was rushed to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, suffering from multiple heart problems.

Michelle stayed night and day at her tiny daughter’s bedside praying she would pull through. However, brave Laila died three months later.

In the burglary, Smith snatched electrical goods and clothes as well as other items from Laila’s room, which Michelle has kept as a shrine to her baby girl.

Michelle’s mum Sandra Allen said: “The house stank of urine and beer and the beds were broken. He must have jumped up and down on them. The place was a complete mess. I tried to get the house sorted before she came back from the hospital. I didn’t want her to have to deal with anything else.

“She was going through enough already. But she found out the baby stuff had gone, it broke her.”

Smith, of Sefton Road, Morecambe, pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced last week at Preston Crown Court.

Furious Sandra said the family will still be suffering long after he has left prison.

She added: “That is all he gets for wrecking our lives. It is disgusting.

“He will be out in less than that while we are still picking up the pieces.

“To lose a baby is hard enough, but we now have hardly anything left to remember her by.”