Man given four years for stabbing girlfriend after killing their baby. Caroline O'Doherty reports on a brave mum ahead of her baby's inquest

STABBED six times. The words hit Sinéad Smullen like the physical blows that had brought her world crashing down.

She looked up in momentary confusion, shook her head in disbelief, and gulped for breath as her eyes filled with tears.

Her boyfriend held her hand, her mother embraced her and her father grimaced as he remembered the awful fate of little Leilah, Sinéad's first baby and his first grandchild.

"That's the first time she heard about Leilah being stabbed six times. We always told her it was just the once," said Seanie Smullen afterwards.

"We didn't want her to know it was a frenzied attack. It was like Hannibal Lector what he did to that child."

Seanie and his wife Margaret have tried to protect 19-year-old Sinéad since the terrible night of April 30 last year.

Her then partner, Derek Hickey, stabbed and killed their 14-week-old baby and also stabbed Sinéad after a row at the flat they shared in Sinéad's native Newbridge, Co Kildare.

But last month she had to relive the horror when Hickey was sentenced to life in prison for Leilah's murder and yesterday the torment continued when he received four years for the attack on Sinéad.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said the crime warranted at least 10 years but by law he could only impose five.

And, even then, he had to take time off to recognise Hickey's guilty plea.

Sinéad was not impressed either. Taking a deep breath, she walked slowly to the witness box, gladly accepting the gesture of the garda superintendent who reached out to squeeze her hand as she passed.

"I'm not recovered," she told the court bluntly. "My right arm is still affected.

"And emotionally I am not really recovered at all."

She left the court in tears, crying both with anger and grief. "It's not enough," she said of the four year sentence for the scars she bears after Hickey plunged a kitchen knife into her back and neck.

"It's not enough altogether," she added, with the knowledge that the life sentence for Leilah is unlikely to extend beyond 14 years.

But for all the tears, the plucky teenager emerged from court yesterday standing taller and stronger than at any time since she hobbled to church for the funeral of her baby last spring on the same day the tot had been due to be baptised.

She has a new boyfriend, 21-year-old John Gannon, whom she met at her older sister Pamela's 21st birthday party in March.

He has been like a ray of sunshine to her during the dark days.

"We take it a day at a time," said the soft spoken young security officer who held her hand like he'd never let it go, all the time offering her words of comfort and even managing to coax her into a smile. Sinéad is also working full time in her local branch of Dunnes Stores where the camaraderie of colleagues and customers has helped in bringing her out of herself.

After a time when she didn't want to live, she now looks forward to the future.

But she is making no plans about becoming a mother again some day. "I'll think about it later on," she said.

In the meantime, there is another stage to go in the tragic saga when baby Leilah's inquest is held on Monday.

Seanie sighs but shows the strength that his daughter has inherited. "That'll be another hard day but it has to be done and we'll get through it the way we have done so far - together."