A call to review the ‘unduly lenient’ sentence of a mother who killed her two-year-old son has been rejected by the Attorney General.
Carol Hodgson suffocated Daniel Hodgson Green at home in Guisborough, in February, when she placed a plastic bag over his head after leaving a number of notes for her mother to find.
The 40-year-old was given life with a minimum term of 18 years and four months for the premeditated murder of the toddler.
An application for her sentence to be reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme was refused as it did not meet the criteria.
The Attorney General's office said a referral could only be made if there was a serious error by the sentencing judge and this case didn’t pass the high threshold.
Read more: Carol Hodgson: Mum sentenced to life for murdering Daniel Green
A spokesperson from the Attorney General’s Office said: “After careful consideration the Attorney General has concluded that this case cannot properly be referred to the Court of Appeal.
A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.
“The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.”
Teesside Crown Court heard how the murder happened on the day that Hodgson was due at a court hearing to look at the future of Daniel and his father's access to his son.
Speaking outside the court, Stefan Green, gave an emotional statement expressing the trauma of losing his son at the hands of his former partner.
He said: “I miss hearing him laugh, holding him in my arms, cradling him to sleep. I miss coming home from work to feed him, to hush him back to sleep, looking into his lovely blue eyes and getting completely lost in how lucky I was that he was my son.”
Read more: Daniel James Hodgson Green: Teesside dad's heartbreak over toddler death
A post mortem was carried out on Daniel and no clear injuries were discovered. Examinations of his body found that the toddler had been smothered and suffocated.
Richard Wright QC, representing Hodgson, told the court that his client accepted 'full responsibility for the murder of her son'.
Read more: Carol Hodgson: The chilling note left by killer of Daniel Green
Judge Paul Watson QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, told Hodgson: “There is no doubt but that this was a premeditated killing which had been planned by you in advance.
“You deliberately killed Daniel and then made a determined attempt to kill yourself which was prevented by the arrival of your mother.”
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