Baby P sentences will be unchanged

Baroness Scotland announced last month that she was considering whether the jail terms given to the three people convicted over the little boy's death were "unduly lenient".

But she concluded on Tuesday there was "no realistic prospect" of the Court of Appeal increasing their sentences.

Baby Peter was 17 months old when he was found dead in a blood-spattered cot in Haringey, north London, in August 2007 having suffered a broken back and fractured ribs.

His mother, 27, was given an indefinite sentence with a minimum term of five years at the Old Bailey last month after pleading guilty to causing or allowing her son's death.

Judge Stephen Kramer described her as "manipulative" and "calculating" while rejecting her claim that she was too naive to realise what was going on in her house.

Her boyfriend, 32, was jailed for life with a minimum of 10 years for raping a two-year-old girl. He was also given a 12-year term to run concurrently for his "major role" in Peter's death.

The couple's lodger, Jason Owen, 37, of Bromley, south-east London, received an indefinite sentence with a minimum term of three years for failing to take steps to save the little boy.

Baroness Scotland said: "I believe that the sentences fall within the range that it was reasonable for the judge to have imposed and there is no realistic prospect that the Court of Appeal would increase the sentences if I referred them."

The decision came as it emerged that the mother's boyfriend has launched an attempt to overturn his convictions for rape and causing or allowing Peter's death. His lawyers have now lodged papers appealing against both convictions and both sentences with the Court of Appeal, a legal source confirmed.