judge also lays much wider blame The death of a child stirs many emotions in the community, not least of which I strongly suspect is guilt. Coming almost as a postscript to his sentencing of Kristi Abrahams for the murder of her six-year-old daughter Kiesha, Justice Ian Harrison's words revealed much about a case that has generated extreme emotion and heated political debate for much of the past three years. The comment was a pointed reference to the stream of abuse directed at Abrahams since she claimed her daughter had gone missing only to be revealed as the woman responsible for her murder. Kristi Abrahams and Robert Smith spoke to the media after Kiesha was reported missing in August. But it was perhaps also a comment on the responsibility the state of NSW as a whole bears for the crime. In sentencing Abrahams to a minimum of 16 years in prison - a sentence almost immediately branded a "cop-out" by some - Justice Harrison found that the cycle of intergenerational abuse and the inadequate system of child protection that has plagued NSW for decades played a significant role in child's death. "The offender is an inevitable product of entrenched intergenerational failures," he said. As anyone knows, the burdensome responsibilities of parenthood are not bestowed only upon those who are capable of meeting them. Emotional case: Kiesha Abrahams Photo: Supplied The death of the deceased in these circumstances was the foreseeable and preventable consequence of equally foreseeable and preventable causes. Some details of Abrahams' traumatic childhood and its role in the murder were already known - the physical abuse at the hands of her alcoholic father, the discovery of her mother's dead body following an epileptic fit, and the subsequent shunting of the teenager through Aboriginal group homes and foster homes that were completely incompatible with her identity and needs. But it was not until Thursday's sentence that the full, horrific story of this abuse emerged. At age 11, following her mothers' death, Abrahams wrote a letter entitled "The things I remember what my dad did to my mum." Among the scrawled recollections are: "When my dad strangled my mum when we were going out of the car," "When I went to school I fell off a big beam and when I went was home time he went to kick my very sore leg" and "My dad went to kick my mum in the tummy really hard." Justice Harrison found this abuse, and Abrahams' intellectual disability, had made her "patently ill-equipped" for the role of motherhood and "probably equally unable to recognise it." The 16-year sentence, with an additional six-year parole period, drew an angry reaction from Kiesha's supporters. "Does having a bad upbringing and abuse give you the right to go and take people's lives?" asked group spokesman Alison Anderson. The reaction was understandable given the horrific facts. Having inflicted critical injuries on her sometime in July 2010, Abrahams then failed to call an ambulance or provide any medical care. A few days later she and her partner, Robert Smith, dragged the little girl's body, which had been placed in a suitcase, into the bush, set her alight and buried her. It took a meticulously planned, nine-month police investigation including undercover officers and hidden surveillance to draw a confession from the couple, leading to their arrest and the discovery of Kiesha's remains in a shallow grave in Shalvey, on what would have been her seventh birthday. The judge rejected Abrahams' claim that she had simply given Kiesha "a little nudge" causing her to fall from the bed, instead finding that she had intended to cause the little girl "serious bodily injury." But he said it was impossible to find that Abrahams had intended to murder her daughter. "Precisely what happened when the deceased was killed would seem to be known only to the offender and Mr Smith," he said. No motive for the offence has emerged. Also crucial was his finding that it could not be proven Abrahams was responsible for the sustained physical abuse that had been inflicted on Kiesha before her death. It was partly for this reason that he found the crime fell into the mid-range of seriousness rather than the most serious category. The police involved in the investigation appeared dejected as they walked from the court. But the officer in charge, Detective Inspector Russell Oxford, was philosophical. "All kids want to do in life is to grow up to be loved, and to make their mark in this world," Detective Inspector Oxford said. And I think for Kiesha Weippeart, the mark she's made in this world is, unfortunately, in death.