Baby P: Tracy Connelly drops appeal against sentence

Tracey Connelly, the mother of Baby P, has given up on her appeal for a more lenient prison sentence over her role in torturing her toddler son.

To the fury of child protection groups, Tracey Connelly was due to launch a bid at the Court of Appeal this week to have her jail term cut.

However, the 28-year-old has decided not to question the sentence she received in May this year, which would make her eligible for release in three years.

Alongside her boyfriend Steven Barker and his brother Jason Owen, she was jailed for causing or allowing the death of her 17-month-old son Peter in August 2007.

She received an indefinite sentence, but was told she would be able to apply for parole in 2012, having spent five years in prison.

Peter Connelly died in excruciating pain after more than eight months of abuse, during which he suffered a snapped spine, broken ribs and had his front tooth punched out.

He was on the “at risk” child protection register in Haringey, north London, and had been seem more than 60 times by social workers, health officials and police, but all appeared to miss his 50 injuries.

The day before Connelly was jailed at the Old Bailey earlier this year, she wrote a hand-written letter to Judge Stephen Kramer, trying to claim her innocence and regret.

“I have lost all I held dear to me… Every day of my life is full of guilt and trying to come to terms with my failure as a mother.

“I punish myself on a daily basis and there is not a day that goes by where I don’t cry.”

But the judge dismissed her lies and said it “defied belief” that she did not know what was happening to her son.

Her lover’s brother, Owen, 37, still plans to go ahead with his appeal for his sentence to be cut.

The paedophile, who lived in secret with Owen and Barker with his 15-year-old girlfriend, was also given an indeterminate sentence and the right to claim parole in 2011.

Barker, who was seen as Peter’s main tormentor, was given a minimum of 12 years before he is elegible for parole.

He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for the rape of a two-year-old girl. He plans to appeal against the rape conviction next month.

All three have spent most of their time in jail in solitary confinement to protect them from other prisoners.

They have regularly received death threats after the outpouring of anger following their conviction in November last year.

However, Connelly appears oblivious to her crimes and has written letters to her friends, telling of the “party” she plans to hold when she is released from prison.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the “terrible, unspeakable” crimes she, Barker and Owen committed meant they could be in jail for considerably longer than their minimum terms.

“They will only be released if the parole board decides it is safe to do so.

“If the board thinks they are not safe to release, they will remain in custody until they are, whenever that may be.”

:: Sharon Shoesmith, the former head of children’s and social services at Haringey Council, has yet to hear if she has won her judicial review into whether she was unlawfully sacked over the furore caused by Peter’s death.

A High Court judge is due to give his judgment next month.