A WOMAN whose brother was convicted of murdering a child has admitted assaulting a three-year-old girl.

Staci Rigby even telephoned Daniel Rigby at Nottingham Prison, to admit to him what she had done, information which was then passed on to the police, a court heard.

The 24-year-old grabbed the girl by the face and pushed her down.

At first, Rigby said the girl, whose identity is protected by law, had bitten her lip.

But she later admitting assaulting her at an address in Derby between March and May of this year.

Rigby, whose brother received a life sentence after being found guilty of the murder of two-year-old Rio Smedley in “an extremely violent attack” in Bolton in April, 2012, sobbed throughout her hearing at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court.

Handing her a 12-month community order, Judge Jonathan Taaffe said: “I acknowledge the problems you have and the difficulties you have, but a young and vulnerable child has been injured and will live with that for the rest of her life.”

Lynn Bickley, prosecuting, said: “Information from HMP Nottingham was used (in this case) from a phone conversation between a prisoner and this defendant.

“She had been talking to her brother and told him she had grabbed a child by the face making her (the child) bleed.

“This was passed on to the police who arrested her.”

Rigby, of Burdock Close, told officers she had grabbed the child by the face and pushed her down but said it was “not a hard push”.

Simon Stevens, for Rigby, said his client was “a young lady who was forthright in her police interviews”.

Mr Stevens said: “It was something she regretted immediately and she knows her offence is aggravated because it is an assault on a young child.”

In November, 2012, her brother who was then 23, was told he would serve at least 17 years for the murder of Rio Smedley, his girlfriend’s son.

Manchester Crown Court heard Rio had 91 injuries, likely to have been caused by "punches, kicks, knees and stamping".

Sentencing him at the time, Mr Justice David MacKay told Daniel Rigby: "You abused (Rio's) trust by punishing him physically in quite a revolting way.

"It's a chilling, terrible picture. He suffered considerably before he died, I am satisfied. He was a vulnerable boy."

Kirsty Smedley, Rio’s mother called 999 on April 22, 2012, to reported her son was not moving.

She told the emergency services he had "fallen down four steps and banged his head" at their home in Bolton.

The boy was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital but later died of a ruptured liver.

During the trial a medical expert testified the injuries could not have been caused by a fall and the prosecution accused Rigby of "striking Rio with such force as to split his liver in two" during a "sustained and violent attack".