A Perth court has heard how a woman’s mental impairment combined with a childhood filled with neglect, instability and abuse contributed to two incidents of assault that a magistrate has described as “disturbing”.
Pamela-Raye Jetta, 21, sat quietly in a frilly pink dress behind the glass at Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday as prosecutors told how in two separate incidents last year, she assaulted both a two-year-old baby and an 80-year-old woman.
The assault happened in Victoria Park.Credit:
In the first, Jetta had been on a bus in South Perth with two male friends when she flew into a “rage” and began gesticulating wildly with her hands before sitting down next to an elderly lady she did not know. For reasons unknown, Jetta struck the woman across the face, possibly twice, before the woman said, “You hit me”.
“No I didn’t,” the court was told Jetta responded, before allowing the woman to get up and move to another seat.
Four and a half months later, Jetta was at Park Centre, a shopping centre in Victoria Park when she randomly hit a two-year-old girl in the face, who was being carried by her mother.
Defence lawyer Clare Brennan told the court that her client’s actions were “unacceptable” but explained the “context” of her offending, saying that her background had been marred by trauma.
“She has had a tragic life with those people who were supposed to have loved and cared for her,” Brennan said.
“She has a long history with child protection that began when she was two years old. She has spent her life as a child in care and been exposed to violence.”
Brennan told the court Jetta had four different foster placements before she turned 14, some with family members and some in group care home situations.
At 12 years old she was encouraged to start taking drugs by people whose care she was entrusted into, Brennan explained, stating that she was using meth “intravenously” from that age.
“She has a significant history of trauma and it seems to be as a consequence of that trauma she has been assessed as having low functions,” Brennan said.
“She behaves and approaches people as much lower than someone her age should.
Brennan said Jetta had been diagnosed with low intellectual functioning, an impairment that was so significant she had been placed under a guardianship order and was receiving NDIS support.
Magistrate Gavin Maclean said that the woman’s background would be taken into consideration but said the offences were very serious.
“They are separately heinous in their own terms and the combination of both paints something of a horrendous depiction of violence against people who at opposite ends of the age bracket, each of which has their own vulnerabilities,” he said.
But he said Jetta’s childhood was “appalling”.
“Not that I’m angry with you, but simply it is appalling that you as a vulnerable 12-year-old were introduced to intravenous drugs at such a critical point in your development as you were going to adulthood,” he said.
“[It is] a challenging factor to be considered in this sentencing exercise… [and] demonstrates a blanket failure of people who should have been providing for you and looking after you.”
Maclean sentenced Jetta to one year in prison for the assault on the baby and six months for the assault on the elderly woman, to be served one after the other, backdated to October last year when she was first held in custody.