A woman who threw her youngest daughter against a wall several times head first after she vomited in bed has today been jailed for eight years.

County Court Judge Frances Millane said Melissa Ngati, 26, had also punched and kicked the two-year-old girl in "a fit of rage".

The judge said Ngati had been extremely upset and angry about the mess the girl had made and "gave expression to this in the most appalling fashion".

Ngati and her partner did not take the seriously injured girl to hospital for three days because she feared the consequences of having inflicted such a vicious assault on her daughter.

Judge Millane said the girl, now aged four, would require life-long medical care.