THE family of a murdered toddler spoke yesterday of their anger at the ten-year jail term given to his killer.

Babysitter Suzanne Holdsworth was convicted of murdering two-year-old Kyle Fisher by hitting his head repeatedly against the stair banisters at her Hartlepool home.

The mother-of-two was given a mandatory life sentence and at a court hearing earlier this week was told she would serve at least ten years.

However, the bereaved family of baby Kyle said they felt angry and let down by the sentence.

His grandmother, Linda Fisher, 42, said: "When we heard the sentence we couldn't believe it. In my mind, murder meant 15 to 20 years, but we feel like she has been convicted of murder but given a sentence for manslaughter. I can't get my head round it.

"People have said to us that it won't change anything, or bring Kyle back, but it's not about vengeance. It is about justice."

Holdsworth was looking after Kyle while his teenage mother, Clare, who lived opposite her on Hartlepool's Central Estate, was on a night out last July.

Throughout her trial, at Teesside Crown Court last month, Holdsworth maintained her innocence, claiming the youngster had suffered a fit.

But a jury took just four hours to convict her after hearing that the impact on the toddler's head was equivalent to being thrown from a car at 60mph.

Mrs Fisher said: "For what she did, she is somebody evil. Every day I get up and have to look at her house opposite where my grandson was killed.

"Since the day he died, we have all changed. Clare is in pieces and we will never have the life we had and she did that."

She paid tribute to her grandson, saying: "He was my best friend and a bundle of joy."