Life behind bars for Baby Daniel's killer, 20 years for his mother

Tim Naidoo*, convicted of killing his girlfriend's son, Baby Daniel, was on Wednesday sentenced to life behind bars for the toddler's murder.

He was handed a further 10 years for child abuse.

The toddler's mother, Maryke Cloete*, will spend 20 years behind bars after she was convicted on two counts of child abuse. For one charge she was given 10 years, while she was handed a 15-year sentence on the other charge. Five years of the first charge would run concurrently with second.

The couple was sentenced in the South Gauteng High Court on Wednesday, just two hours after their lawyers had presented mitigati factors which they had hoped would get them lenient sentences.

Cloete, now 31, had been found found guilty in December on two counts of child neglect in connection with the death of her three-year-old son. Her former boyfriend, Naidoo, 38, was convicted of murder.

Baby Daniel died in June 2016.

Paramedics found the child's body at their home in Naturena, Johannesburg, where he had sustained burn wounds to 60% of his body after he had been submerged in boiling bath water. He also had head and chest injuries, and bruising on various parts of his body.

*Not their real names. Their true identities have been withheld to protect the identity of the couple's other children.