The father of a dead toddler has been urged by a judge to step away from violence in her honour, as he was jailed for pouring boiling water over a woman.

Nicky Mark Douglas, 29, the father of slain toddler Cash McKinnon, was sentenced to five years and eight months prison in Palmerston North District Court on Wednesday.

Judge Barbara Morris told Douglas that for his dead daughter's sake, the violence must end, Fairfax reported.

Last year Douglas sat through a High Court trial at the conclusion of which, Sean James Donnelly, 24, was convicted of the manslaughter three-year-old Cash.

Donnelly was jailed for seven years.

Douglas plead guilty to a a charge of disfiguring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The woman was left with severe burns after Douglas pushed her on to a bed, then poured a jug of boiling water over her back and the right side of her body.