An Auckland woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment with minimum non parole period of 17 years for the murder of ten month old baby Jynia Te Awa.

Tiana Kapea, who was the child’s minder, has also been sentenced to three years jail on a cruelty charge – that is to be served concurrently with the life sentence.

Kapea, 30, admitting murdering Jyniah last year.

Kapea was baby sitting Jyniah when she was taken from a Manurewa house to Middlemore Hospital in September last year with a brain injury.

She was transferred to Auckland’s Starship Hospital but died the next day.

The court was told that Kapea was a trusted friend of Jyniah’s family.

During her short life, the baby was held against a gas heater, swung around by her hair, hung on the back of a wardrobe door and put in a closed freezer several times.

She died from injuries after being kicked, thrown against a wall, shaken and smothered.

Jyniah’s mother Lisa Cassidy says she still can’t believe Kapea abused her baby, when she had trusted her.

She says she went to church, she had good children and was a best friend to her.

Cassidy says the sentence gives her family some closure and says every night she and her children cry and pray to have nice dreams.

Relatives of Jynia wore t-shirts in court with slogans demanding justice for the little girl on Tuesday.

They burst into spontaneous applause when the sentence was announced.