KEY POINTS:
A man who murdered a 2-year-old girl while on bail for killing a woman has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.
Michael John Curran, 28, was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years and six months for murdering Aaliyah
Morrissey in September 2005.
His sentence was reduced by six months from 21 years to take into account time already served behind bars for the January 2005 manslaughter of 24-year-old Natasha Hayden.
Aaliyah's family praised the judge for his summing up of the case, but said the law did not allow a sentence long enough to fit Curran's crime.
"To me, it wasn't long enough for the fact he took my daughter's life," Aaliyah's mother, Hoana, said. "I'm never going to see her again.
"I would've liked to have seen him never let out again."
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Aaliyah's father, Brad, said Curran had taken away "one of my most treasured possessions".
"I don't believe I'll ever get over and recover from all the effects of Curran's actions," he said.
Mr Morrissey said he had lost his job and custody of his three other children in the wake of Aaliyah's murder, and that he and his wife were still fighting for custody of their youngest child, a 20-month-old girl, after Child, Youth and Family decided they were not fit parents for allowing Aaliyah into Curran's care.
Curran murdered Aaliyah while on bail at home with his wife and children in Tauranga. The Morrisseys lived on the same street and the two families became friends, Curran also embarking on a brief affair with Mrs Morrissey.
He fatally injured Aaliyah when Mrs Morrissey left her briefly in his care while out paying bills with Curran's wife, Donna.
"No one could imagine the suffering I went through dealing with the death of the apple of my eye and not having the comfort of my children," Mr Morrissey told the court.
Justice Graham Lang said Curran's offending warranted a sentence longer than the minimum 17 years imposed in such cases.
"You committed the most brutal of crimes using the most brutal of force," he said.
He said Aaliyah was particularly vulnerable because of her age and the fact she had been placed in Curran's care.
From the evidence, the judge concluded that Curran began assaulting Aaliyah when she started crying.
He believed Curran had increased the level of force as the attack wore on.
As the "final act", Curran had jammed her head against a floor and caused the injury that led to her death.
"That likely would have brought about what you wanted - silence," the judge told Curran.
Aaliyah had 30 bruises on her body when she died, some inflicted by Curran in the days leading up to her death.
The worst covered the area from the top of her nappy down to her pubic region. Medical experts said this bruising was consistent with stomping and they had seen nothing like it in 15 to 20 years of practice.
Aaliyah also had a fractured arm and damage to her eyes which would have left her blind in one eye and significantly impaired in the other had she lived.
The head injury that killed her resulted in severe brain swelling and was the result of "violent decelerative force" applied to her head.
The experts compared the force to the impact of a vehicle crash.
Curran looked pale throughout the sentencing but listened to the announcement of his prison term impassively.
