The 25-year-old sat on the baby because he did not want her mother to wake up, hear her crying and think he was a bad father, the New South Wales Supreme Court in Newcastle was told today.

The man had a history of violence toward the little girl and admitted to sitting on her once previously and hitting her twice in the head after becoming frustrated by her crying.

Justice Robert Hulme sentenced the man, who cannot be named, to a non-parole period of four years and six months and a maximum term of seven-and-a-half years for the "bizarre" manslaughter.

He said for some offenders, "their feelings of guilt or remorse operate more strongly than punishment is likely to do".

The court today heard the baby died shortly after her father laid her on the lounge and sat on her in the early hours of July 13, 2005.

"The crying stopped, the evidence suggesting that the child stopped breathing at that time," Justice Hulme said.

The man immediately awoke the baby's mother, dialled triple-0 and commenced CPR, but she died after being taken to hospital.

A post-mortem examination showed she had bruises of various ages on her face, fractures to a number of ribs and internal haemorrhages to her head.

The injuries were "consistent with an overall pattern of child abuse", Justice Hulme said.

The baby's father admitted to police he had sat on her "for a significant period".

Justice Hulme said the man had a "history of becoming increasingly frustrated at (the baby's) crying".

He said the man told a psychiatrist he did not know how to stop his daughter's crying and did not want to wake her mother, who was asleep in another room.

"I didn't want to hurt her, I didn't want to kill her, I just wanted her to stop crying," the man said.

"I didn't want to wake (the baby's mother) up, because I didn't want her to think that I was a bad father."

In sentencing today, Justice Hulme took into account two previous assaults on the baby in which the man had hit her in the head area with an open hand.

Justice Hulme said the man's earlier violence towards his daughter should have acted as a warning to him.

"These incidents must have made the prisoner aware that his conduct or some inability to control himself created a risk for a young and helpless baby," he said.

But Justice Hulme said he had to take into account the man's remorse, his guilty plea, the unlikelihood of re-offending and an intellectual disability he had suffered since birth.

With time already served, the man will be eligible for release in January 2010.

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