An Aussie mum has spoken out after her husband was convicted of killing their baby girl, Lily.
When Emma Cosgrove went to work and left little Lily, seven months, with her loving husband Paul Cosgrove, 24, she thought her precious girl would be safe.
Paul had always been a doting husband and Emma was keen for them to bond after her hubby had struggled to adapt to fatherhood.
But on the second day of leaving them together, Emma got a strange feeling when she couldn’t reach her Paul on the phone.
‘When I tried to call at lunchtime, the line rang out so I thought they must be napping,’ says Emma.
When he finally picked up an hour later, Paul said he had been napping and Emma reminded him that they were all going to her mum’s for a birthday dinner that night.
But later that day Paul didn’t turn up to the family event.
Dialling Paul’s number, he told Emma he was on his way. Then he mentioned something that made Emma’s blood run cold.
‘Lily fell off the change table… she won’t wake up,’ said Paul.
Emma begged Paul to take him to the hospital but instead he said he was going home.
Racing home, Emma found Paul silently sitting at the end of the bed cradling Lily who was pale and floppy.
After calling Triple-0, paramedics rushed Lily to hospital where she was taken to ICU with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.
Paul turned up four hours later but Emma never suspected her husband was responsible for their girl’s condition.
‘I thought he must be in shock,’ says Emma.
But the next day, Emma was given two pieces of devastating news. Her baby girl was going to die and her husband had been arrested.
‘I had no time to think about my husband’s crime, my daughter needed me,’ says Emma.
Emma cradled baby Lily as her life support machine was turned off and she passed away.
Completely bereft, Emma also found out what had happened that fateful day.
Falling asleep with Lily on the couch, Paul had woken up to find her on the floor. When Lily began vomiting he left her with a neighbour and visited a massage parlour and bought some booze.
Paul then collected Lily and changed her nappy on the change table, leaving her alone on the table while he threw the old nappy out.
When he returned to find her on the floor, instead of taking her to the hospital he took her to bed and fell asleep. When he woke up, he slapped little Lily in the face and shook her.
‘I’d trusted him to look after our child like a real dad,’ says Emma.
On December 20, 2016, Paul James Cosgrove, 24, was sentenced to seven years’ jail for manslaughter.
‘He should have got life,’ says Emma. ‘I can never forgive Paul.
For more real-life stories, see issue 20 of that’s life! magazine – out now!
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