The Tamerrys were sentenced yesterday after a tense stand-off between Chief Justice Richard Ground and Amenemhat Tamerry, with Tamerry accusing Mr. Justice Ground of racism and demanding to leave the courtroom, and Mr. Justice Ground ordering him to stay, saying he needed to hear what was said.

Tamerry and his wife, Maatkari Tamerry, were convicted in June of the manslaughter of their ten-month-old daughter A-Maya. Yesterday the mother was sentenced to one year in jail, with time already spent to be taken into consideration, followed by a further three years of probation, including regular psychiatric assessment and treatment. The father received five years imprisonment.

Mr. Justice Ground also offered theories on what happened to A-Maya, saying the mother's anorexic tendencies and the father's stubbornness may have contributed to the child's death.

Tensions were high in the packed courtroom before the proceedings even began. On Friday, when the sentencing began, there was standing room only as the courtroom overflowed with family, friends, Police officers and witnesses in the trial. Yesterday was the same.

Before Mr. Justice Ground read the sentence, the father requested he be allowed to say something. Both the Tamerrys had addressed the court on Friday afternoon, with the husband stating that the British legal system is biased against “people of non-European descent”.

Yesterday, Mr. Justice Ground refused to allow Tamerry to speak a second time, saying he had already had his chance. Tamerry insisted what he had to say involved “mitigating factors”, but the Chief Justice remained firm.

“A child has died in terrible circumstances, and nothing that happens here can bring her back or remedy that,” Mr. Justice Ground said in a statement which was copied to the Press.

“This case is all the more tragic because I have no doubt that both parents deeply loved this child, and did not intend to harm it.

“Nevertheless, there can be no doubt from the medical evidence that they let it starve to death in front of their eyes. To the extent that it has been said that the loss of their child is itself a sufficient punishment for them, I am bound to say that the psychiatric and social inquiry reports (SIR) reveal that neither of them yet seems to accept their own responsibility for its death ...

“Having heard the evidence and read the psychiatric reports, I think that what happened was that the mother, perhaps projecting her own anorexic tendencies onto the child, failed to feed it adequately, and that the father, blinded by his own stubborn wrong-headedness, failed to seek medical help.”

The situation was made worse when the parents rejected the advice of paediatrician Alexander Barron, who warned them that unless the child put on weight, she would die, Mr. Justice Ground said. They “then quite deliberately cut themselves off from all help when they failed to keep an appointment with the paediatrician Dr. (June) Hill.

“It is a sign of how far out of touch with the reality of their own responsibility these parents are, that they continue to blame Dr. Barron and seem to fail to understand that what he warned them about has come to pass. Indeed, the real wickedness in this case is the way in which both parents, but particularly the first defendant (the father), refused to heed medical advice.”

“That's garbage!” Tamerry shouted at that point, insisting again that he be allowed to speak further, and waving a piece of paper with his statement in the air.

“You could've given evidence at trial,” Mr. Justice Ground replied. Tamerry continued demanding to be allowed to speak, until the Chief Justice ordered him to “shut up and sit down”.

When the dispute continued, Mr. Justice Ground ordered Tamerry be removed from the courtroom. “I could leave on my own, man,” Tamerry replied. However, as he stood, Mr. Justice Ground changed his mind. “I want you to hear this,” he told the father, ordering him to sit.

“He doesn't want to me to make my comments but I have to listen to his garbage,” Tamerry said, adding these were the “biases of the British legal system” he had mentioned on Friday. Finally sitting, he put his arm around his wife, hugging her.

Mr. Justice Ground continued to read the sentence over Tamerry's continued interruptions, saying there was no need to protect the community from the Tamerrys, but adding there was a need to reinforce community-held values: namely that “all parents are under an absolute duty to care properly for their children.

“Infants are helpless and rely entirely upon their parents for all the necessaries of life, including food and medical attention, and those parents do not have the right to deny them any of those necessaries because of their own misguided opinions.”

With such a terrible outcome, he doubted the Tamerrys needed deterring from committing further offences, and they were not a danger to society generally. “However, they do both need rehabilitation, in the sense that they need to come to terms with their own blame for what happened ... they both need to come to some realisation of their own role in all of this.”

“You need to come to grips with your racism,” Tamerry interrupted at that point.

Psychological evidence “clearly indicates that she (Mrs. Tamerry) had unresolved psychiatric problems which may have contributed to her failure to perceive the child's problems or act on them appropriately,” Mr. Justice Ground continued. “These may have been exacerbated by the dominance of her husband and his ideology over her.

“However, I am bound to say that none of that was relied on by the defence at trial ... Mrs. Tamerry gave evidence in which she took no responsibility but continued to blame others for what had happened, and even went to far as to say the pathologist had concocted his evidence to suit the Police.”

Though Mr. Justice Ground had considered a hospital order for the mother, he ruled it out in favour of a probation order, which allows for a more sustained period of monitoring.

He explained: “I think that she is certainly now suffering from clinical depression (whatever her true condition at the time of the offence) ... once released from hospital there is a real risk that she would relapse, refuse treatment, or harm herself.”

The mother's failure to accept responsibility for what happened indicated a lack of remorse for her role, he said, drawing more vocal interruptions from the husband. “I think that, for the immediate future, the defendant's own needs are best met by a period of restraint and supervision, and I hope and intend that the custodial period will be beneficial in stabilising her psychiatric state, and preventing self-harm ...

“As far as Dr. Tamerry is concerned, there is no such mitigation.”

Psychiatric assessments found no evidence of any disorders, he said, however the SIR suggested “a stubborn and self-willed man who was immune to advice or admonition from the medical profession.

“He was warned in very clear terms by all the doctors involved ... and could have been in no doubt of the danger his daughter was in ... Yet he had medical training, and was a qualified dentist. Because of that he must bear the greater responsibility.”

Though the SIR had suggested drug treatment for Tamerry's habitual use of marijuana, Mr. Justice Ground rejected that. “I do no think that this offence was drug-related, and I frankly doubt if treatment of education would be effective in this case.”

“Marijuana is not a drug,” Tamerry stated.

When the Chief Justice ordered the pair to stand to receive their sentences, the father remained seated. “I ain't standing up,” he told Mr. Justice Ground.

“I don't care,” replied Mr. Ground. “I don't either,” said Tamerry, adding: “You're full of sh*t.”

The mother, however, received her sentence in silence. As Mr. Justice Ground adjourned the court she hugged her lawyer, Elizabeth Christopher, and received pats on the back from a Police officer. Outside, she hugged other friends and family, and got into the prisoner van smiling.

“Everything's okay,” the father said to family members as he was escorted from the court. “Everything is alright.”