A YOUNG woman who gave birth to a stillborn baby hours after being jailed for assault has failed to win a cut in her prison sentence.

The family of Katrina Robinson hit out last night after being told her appeal to have her 15-month sentence reduced had failed.

The 20-year-old, of Thornton Street, Hartlepool, was seven months pregnant when she was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court in July, after pleading guilty to assaulting a 16-year-old girl.

Last night, her tearful mother, Sue Robinson, said: "It's disgusting.

"That bairn lost her baby and she has never been able to grieve.

"I was hoping to have her home for Christmas. If they wanted to jail her, they should have waited until after the baby was born. She won't be out now until March."

Her then boyfriend and co- accused, Terence Rowley, 26, was jailed for the same term after admitting the offence, on February 1.

Yesterday, London's Criminal Appeal Court refused to cut Robinson's sentence, rejecting claims it was "manifestly excessive" and she should have received a lesser term than Rowley.

Mr Justice Holman said it had been "appropriate and justifiable" of the trial judge to conclude Robinson and Rowley were equally culpable.

Rowley was older, had a more serious record and produced a penknife at the scene of the attack.

But Robinson was "fully adult and fully able" to make her own decision and had instigated the violence, first on the 16-year-old's boyfriend, and then on the girl.

"It is a very tragic fact that, later on the same day of sentencing, she in fact gave birth to a stillborn baby," Mr Justice Holman said.