A WOMAN who gave birth to a stillborn baby only hours after being jailed for assault must wait to hear if she can appeal.

Katrina Robinson, 20, is hoping her request to appeal her 15-month sentence will be allowed by the Court of Appeal.

She was jailed at the end of July while seven months pregnant with her first child for an attack on a 16-year-old girl.

However, only hours after being taken to Low Newton Prison in Durham, she went into early labour, despite having a perfectly normal scan two days earlier.

Soon after, her baby, a son she named Terrence, was stillborn at the University Hospital of Hartlepool.

Her parents, Sue and Leslie Robinson, of Thornton Street, Hartlepool, say that she should never have been jailed for the offence, and have blamed the baby's death on the stress of her ordeal.

Now they are hoping her appeal will be allowed, and that judges will find in favour of their daughter and free her sooner.

Mr Robinson said: "Katrina knows she has to face her punishment and she accepts that what she did was wrong, but the length of the prison sentence was unfair and all the things she has been through since has been punishment enough.

"This was her first offence for violence. We are hoping the court takes all of that into account."

The Court of Appeal yesterday said Robinson's case was still to go before a single judge, who will decide if she should be given leave to appeal her sentence.

If she is granted permission, her case will then go before a panel of judges who will decide if her sentence should be reduced.

Robinson's former boy-friend, Terrence Rowley, 26, of Chaloner Road, Hartlepool, was also jailed for the same attack.