Warwick mum slaps, punches stepdad in breach of domestic violence order

A fight with her mum escalated into a booze-fuelled assault on her stepfather for this Warwick woman, who has now faced court for her shocking offending.

A Warwick woman who slapped and punched her stepfather in a violent alcohol-fuelled rage has faced court for breaching a domestic violence order.

The conflict began when the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, got into a fight with her mother at about 7.30pm on September 15 while her stepfather was outside smoking a cigarette.

Warwick Magistrates Court heard the man went inside to the kitchen see what the argument was about, at which point the 35-year-old woman came out from another room and started yelling “c —t” at him.

Police prosecutor Steve de Lissa said the stepfather started filming the woman as she advanced on him and continued swearing, with the mother then coming into the hallway and trying to cut her off.

“She broke free and launched herself at the (man) and slapped him in the face,” Sergeant de Lissa said.

“(He) pushed the defendant to the ground, and she then got up and punched him in the side of the head with a fist. He pushed her away and walked out of the room.”

Sergeant de Lissa said the woman had come home about three hours earlier with a bottle of vodka and began drinking it, meaning she was “extremely intoxicated” by the time of the incident.

Warwick police were soon called to the scene and watched the footage filmed by the stepfather before arresting the woman and taking her to the watch-house.

The Warwick court was told the woman had no previous domestic violence offences, and the most recent conviction of any kind on her criminal record was from 2005.

Duty lawyer Phillip Crook said the violent incident forced the mother to recognise her problem with alcohol, and she’d since undertaken counselling to start turning her life around.

“She puts it down to the fact she had trauma as a child and something occurred that brought up the memories, and she got on the alcohol and that got the incident going,” Mr Crook said.

He said she apologised almost immediately to both her mother and stepfather before leaving with them on holiday the next day.

Magistrate Julian Noud labelled the Warwick woman’s offending “pitiful behaviour” and a needless act of domestic violence, but acknowledged she had good prospects of rehabilitation.

The woman pleaded guilty to one count of contravening a domestic violence order.

She was fined $850 and no conviction was recorded.