A Quebec man who slapped his teenage daughter so hard that it led to her death has been sentenced to 60 days in jail.

Moussa Sidime, of Longueuil, Que., will be able to serve his sentence on Mondays and Tuesdays over 30 weeks, which will be followed by two years of probation.

The 74-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2010 death of his daughter Noutene.

Crown prosecutor Julie Laborde said the 60-day judgement accounted for the unique circumstances surrounding the incident.

“There were a lot of mitigating factors for the accused that were taken into consideration by the judge,” she said. “So that sentence reflects those mitigating factors.”

Sidime got into an argument with Noutene about how she was conducting her chores and he slapped her on both sides of her face. Minutes later, Sidime found the 13-year-old unconscious and called 911. She died three days later in hospital, never coming out of a coma.

Sidime was initially charged with aggravated assault causing death. But when a pathologist's report found that Noutene died of a cerebral hemorrhage and the slaps were a factor in her death, the charges were changed to manslaughter.

“Corporal punishment is never the answer to a child’s misbehaviour. The message has to be sent,” said Laborde. “And to the opinion of the court the message was already heard by the community and the accused himself.”

Sidime’s other children were relieved by the outcome. Daughter Aissatou Sidime-Blanton said she was worried the judge would hand down a harsher sentence.

“I’m extremely happy. We were very concerned; we felt like there had been a bias against my father throughout this procedure,” she said. “But we knew that in his heart he had never meant anything more than the best for my sister.”

She said her younger sister was “lively” and “fun to be around,” and described her as a “smart child,” adding she was planning on studying law in the United States.

“We had talked about it just a couple of months prior to her death,” Sidime-Blanton said. “So yes, it was devastating. And we still miss her.”

She said there was never any reason to be angry with her father – instead, they were hurting for him, she said, and hoping for a fair outcome.

“This was one of those freak accidents,” she said. “If he could take it back, he would take it back. We all would.”

With files from CTV Montreal