Father jailed 60 days after killing 13-year-old daughter with two slaps

A Canadian man was sentenced to 60 days in jail this week for
slapping his 13-year-old daughter so hard that she later died.
Moussa Sidime, 74, from Quebec, had pleaded guilty to a
manslaughter charge stemming from a 2010 confrontation with
his teenage daughter, which ultimately resulted in her death.
According to court documents, the man got into a heated
argument over chores with 13-year-old Noutene Sidime and
slapped her on both sides of her face.
Moussa Sidime (left) was sentenced to 60 days in his
daughter's 2010 death; Noutene Sidime (right), 13, died from
brain hemorrhaging after being slapped twice in the face with
great force
The girl collapsed to the floor unconscious with blood trickling
from her nose. Mr Sidime called 911 and Noutene was rushed
to a hospital, CTV News reported.
The 13-year-old girl spent three days in a coma at the Montreal
Children's Hospital before succumbing to her injures
A medical examiner determined that the teenager died from a
cerebral hemorrhage caused in part by the slaps.
Moussa Sidime was initially charged with aggravated assault
causing death, but the count was later changed to involuntary
manslaughter.
On Wednesday, a judge in Quebec ruled that the 74-year-old
patriarch will be able to serve his 60-day sentence on
weekends over the course of 30 weeks.
Judge Richard Marleau took into account the defendant’s
obvious remorse and his spotless criminal record. Sidime’s jail
term will be followed by two years’ probation.
The Sidime family rallied around the father, described as a pillar
of the Guinea-Canadian community, insisting that the girl's
death was a tragic accident.
‘We knew that in his heart he meant only the best for his
daughter,' said Aissatou Sidime-Blanton, the victim’s eldest
sister.
Crown prosecutor Julie Laborde said after the hearing that the
sentence sent a message that corporal punishment is never the
answer to a child's misbehavior.
On October 6, 2010, Nouténé Sidime was washing the floor in
the family’s apartment in Longueuil when her father came up to
her and scolded her for missing dirt under a carpet.
The 74-year-old married father was on his way back to the
living room when he said he overhead his daughter talking back
to him, he told the court in February.
He slapped the child twice on the face and once on her
backside.
A few minutes later, Mr Sidime heard a thump coming from the
kitchen. He went to investigate and found Noutene lying on the
floor with blood on her face.
The man tried to revive the girl after calling 911, but she never
regained consciousness.
An autopsy later found that Mr Sidime’s blows caused Noutene
to twist her neck in such a way that an artery was ruptured,
cutting off the flow of oxygen to the brain.
‘If I had known one slap would kill her ... I can't believe it could
be fatal,’ a sobbing Mr Sidime told the court in February, saying
that it was the first time he raised his hand on Noutene,
according to Toronto Sun.
The father described Noutene, a gifted young artist who aspired
to be a lawyer, as the kindest of his children and insisted, ‘I’m
not a villain.’
‘We love her dearly, we didn’t want her to go, but it was what
God wanted at that time. This is one of those freak accidents
that, as he has said, if he could take it back, he would take it
back,’ Sidime’s eldest daughter told Toronto Star after the
sentencing.