A teenage mother who left her five-month-old baby to starve to death has had her appeal for a more lenient sentence rejected - and instead had it increased by 30 months.

Alena Ipatova, 19, was dubbed 'Monster Mum' in her shocked homeland of Russia after abandoning baby daughter Veronika while she went out partying for two weeks.

She was sentenced to a decade of hard labour, but appealed and tried to claim it was her parents' fault for not teaching her how to look after children.

But judges were outraged by her attempts to shift blame and instead increased her sentence by a further two-and-a-half years.

Evil: Alena Ipatova, 19, was dubbed 'Monster Mum' after abandoning her baby daughter Veronika while she went out partying for two weeks. She is seen here in court (left) and in her partying days (right)

Ipatova's defence team appealed and argued that due to circumstances in her life, she was not aware of the consequences for the baby.

But judges at an upper court in St Petersburg dismissed the appeal and instead sentenced her to a further 30 months of punishment.

They also rejected the prosecution's appeal that Ipatova have her sentence increased to 19 years

At the trial in September last year, Ipatova admitted to leaving her baby alone in her apartment while she disappeared for a fortnight.

When she got back, the court heard, she found her infant daughter dead.

Video footage of her courtroom appearance showed the crop-haired teenager locked inside a bulletproof dock by guards as she gave her evidence.

She told the sentence hearing: 'I really regret what I did. I did not want that to happen. I realise what I have done.'

Starved: Baby Veronika was abandoned by mum Alena who went partying. She was found dead two weeks later in a case that shocked Russia

Ipatova also attempted to blame her parents for mistreating her when she was a child, and not teaching her how to properly take care of her daughter.

Her lawyer Oleg Kiyashko claimed she had asked the child's father to help look after their daughter.

He claimed: 'Yes, she left the child at times. Although she left her, sometimes she came back in the morning or the father was at home, so he could still look after the girl.'