Repeat offender blamed young son’s ADD for violent assault with spoon

A single mum has assaulted her nine-year-old son with a spoon, leaving him unable to write at school due to bruising. Now, she’s told a southeast Queensland court why she hit him as it heard this isn’t her first offence against her kids.

A single mum who assaulted her nine-year-old son with a spoon said his “volatile” behaviour pushed her to the limit during a hearing at the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The 38-year-old North Lakes mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to a single charge of assault occasioning bodily harm following a physical altercation with the boy between November 14 and 19, 2020.

The court heard the woman’s nine-year-old son was fighting with his brothers when she intervened by hitting him on the arm with a spoon.

Pine Rivers Courthouse. Picture: Marcel Baum

According to the police prosecutor, the assault caused the boy significant bruising and he was unable to write with a pencil at school.

The woman’s lawyer told the court “it was not uncommon for their fights to get physical” due to his “complex needs” and “behavioural difficulties”.

In a document tendered to the court, the boy’s paediatrician outlined his diagnoses of attention deficit disorder, emotional dysregulation, anxiety and autism.

It was not the mother’s first assault offence against her children – Magistrate Melanie Ho noted she’d been sentenced for striking her daughter in 2011.

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The Department of Child Safety had received several complaints about the mother, but ultimately decided not to intervene due to the mother’s efforts to educate herself about alternative discipline strategies and the complex nature of the case.

Magistrate Ho sentenced the mother to a 12-month, $1000 good behaviour bond.