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IN PHOTO: Dolls are displayed in Rabin Square as part of an exhibition to raise awareness of child abuse in Tel Aviv May 24, 2013. Some 1,000 dolls were laid at the square in Israel's commercial capital in a two-day long exhibition organised by a local organisation for the protection of children. REUTERS/Nir Elias

A Sydney mother, who earlier claimed her seven-year-old son's fatal injuries were due to a fall from a pogo stick, has been sentenced to long jail-term for her son’s manslaughter.

While a subsequent autopsy revealed the boy was subjected to sickening physical assaults, the mother also admitted he had been assaulted at the hands of herself and her boyfriend.

On Thursday the NSW Supreme Court heard the 27-year-old woman, she claimed to be a responsible and a loving mother until she started seeing a Christian hip-hop music producer. Media reports cannot reveal the name of woman for legal reasons.

In May 2013, paramedics found the boy’s body inside a recording studio in Oatley, which was owned by his mother’s musician boyfriend. The couple lied to both paramedics and police that the boy was hurt while playing on a pogo stick.

During sentence, Justice Ian Harrison said, the moderately disabled boy was neglected for several months and received sickening physical abuse that eventually led to death.

The court heard during a family vacation, the seven-year-old was mercilessly hit with a timber slat, besides being deprived of food as part of punishment on many occasions.

Justice Harrison said the woman "embarked on a course to deceive police about her conduct on her failure to care for the deceased in the circumstances". "A heavy responsibility is on a parent to care for a child who is otherwise defenceless," he added.

The woman was sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in May 2024. Meanwhile, her boyfriend has been charged with murder and will stand trial later this year.

Contact the writer on barsha23@gmail.com

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