Esther Arunga freed after conviction in her son's murder case

Esther Arunga has been freed by an Australian court after she was convicted in the murder case of her three-year-old son in 2014.

Justice Martin Burns handed her a 10-month prison term but immediately freed her on parole.

The former KTN TV anchor on Monday pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact to manslaughter.

Ms Arunga had admitted to lying to the police in a bid to help her husband, Quincy Timberlake, avoid punishment.

Mr Timberlake is accused of killing their son Sinclair Timberlake. The boy died due to blunt force trauma to the abdomen in 2014 in their family home in Kallangur, Australia.

SYMPATHETIC

In his ruling on Thursday, Justice Burns is quoted by the Australian Associated Press as saying that he was sympathetic to her situation when she spoke to the police investigating her son's death.

"You must be taken to have been in shock at the death of your son, at the times when you were interviewed... and further to be grieving at your loss," he said.

He concluded that Ms Arunga's cultural beliefs played a factor and she had suffered a "great deal" during the five years since.

"You went from being a wife and a mother, who was at that time nursing a six-month-old baby, and who was otherwise trying to establish your young family in a new country, to losing your son, husband and daughters," he said.