Aisha Harris, 21, is terrified Lee Sweet, 27, could be released from jail in 2020 after admitting killing the six-month-old.
The brute shook little Ruben Sweet-Harris to death causing him to suffer two aneurysms because the tot wouldn't stop crying.
He admitted manslaughter in June 2018 – meaning he could serve just half his five years and four month sentence and be roaming the streets next year.
Devastated Aisha, from Plymouth, Devon, said: "We’re worried about him being released. We feel like he could come back here and that we could bump into him. What happens if I see him in the street?
"How can I walk around pretending that things are fine when I know I could bump into him."
AGONISING WAIT FOR JUSTICE
Ruben died on May 31, 2017, after being found “unresponsive and floppy” at his home while Sweet was looking after him.
The fiend lost his temper over the baby boy’s crying – grabbing him by the ribs and shaking him him until he was unconscious.
He was rushed to hospital where medics battled to save his life for three days – but Aisha had to make the heartbreaking decision to switch his life support off.
She was told by doctor’s that Ruben had suffered catastrophic brain damage “akin to a car crash”.
But brazen Sweet was not charged until May last year and spent 11 months playing pool and walking the streets as Aisha faced an agonising wait for justice.
'CALM' BABY KILLER
Aisha said: “It didn't even cross my mind that he’d do anything like that. We’d only got back together the Thursday before Ruben died.
"Lee was sat next to me the whole time, he was really calm. Looking back I think it’s so disgusting that he was sat there watching what he had done.
"He kept saying that Ruben would be OK.
"When the police said that he could have been shaken Lee kept swearing and saying ‘how could you think it was me’?
"He was behaving almost as if nothing had happened. He was very calm."
Sweet admitted what he had done after being presented with medical evidence and was later sentenced at Plymouth Crown Court.
'WE'VE BEEN LET DOWN'
To add to Aisha's pain, she gave an emotional victim impact statement in court saying she had thought about taking her own life after her son’s tragic death.
The mum added: "I will never again hold him in my arms, I will never kiss his face and worst of all, I will never hear his first words.
“I can only imagine the fear that filled my little man.”
Aisha has now launched a campaign to set a minimum 15 year tariff in cases where the offender kills a child through shaking.
The student said: “Lee's sentence feels like a slap wrist compared to what we're living with as a family, we've been let down by the system.
"Losing Ruben has been life destroying. It still feels like I'm imagining it. It feels like a weird kind of dream and that I'm going to get him back and all this hasn’t happened.
"I've set up the campaign to try and stop others going through the heartache of losing a child and then dealing with the justice system."
SOFT JUSTICE
Judge James Dingemans started with an eight year sentence and increased it by six months for Sweet’s lies.
But the High Court judge then reduced the term for six months for Sweet’s mitigation – including his lack of previous convictions.
The standard third reduction then brought the term down to five years and four months.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Any case involving the death of a child is tragic and independent judges already have the ability to sentence someone to life for manslaughter.
“They make sentencing decisions using the relevant guidelines taking into account the facts of each individual case.”
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