Appeal over bike manslaughter jail terms

Prosecutors are appealing against jail terms given to a couple for the manslaughter of a four-year-old Adelaide girl who suffered massive injuries after being forced to ride a motorbike which repeatedly crashed.

Chloe Valentine's mother, Ashlee Polkinghorne, 22, was jailed for eight years with a minimum of four years nine months, while her partner Benjamin McPartland, 28, received seven years with a minimum of four years two months.

But the South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions on Wednesday lodged an appeal over the sentence. No date has been set for the hearing.

When the couple was sentenced in the South Australian Supreme Court on April 2, Justice Trish Kelly said footage revealed Polkinghorne laughing as she filmed her injured daughter repeatedly falling off the bike.

The couple made the 17kg girl ride the 50kg motorbike over a three-day period in January 2012, despite her suffering massive injuries from repeatedly falling off and crashing.

When the girl was eventually unconscious in a semi-vegetative state, the couple waited eight-and-a-half hours before calling an ambulance.

The couple pleaded guilty to the criminal neglect manslaughter of Chloe, who suffered massive injuries after the bike repeatedly crashed into a shed and pot plants, fell on top of her and eventually smashed into a lemon tree in their Adelaide backyard.