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The father of a nine-year-old girl drugged and killed by her mother says no prison sentence will do his daughter justice.

“I will never get to watch my daughter grow up, but I know she would have done great in life,” Duane Lucius said Friday as he clutched a photo of his daughter Amber.

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“I have had to bury my child and nothing will bring her back. I can only hope that other children are not being used as bargaining chips in a divorce or used to hurt the other parent.”

His former wife, Laura Coward, was sentenced Friday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years after pleading guilty in a Calgary courtroom last month to second-degree murder.

The life sentence was automatic, but it was up to Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Scott Brooker to decide how long she’d have to wait before being able to seek parole.

The judge said it was “the ultimate betrayal for Miss Coward to kill her own daughter.”

“In murdering your own daughter you have committed a vile and evil crime,” he said. “This court must express society’s disgust and outrage to denounce your evil act.”