Canberra mum sentenced for strangling and assaulting child

Tears have been shed in court after a boy retold the disgusting assault he suffered at the hands of his mum in drawings, thinking he was ‘going to die’.

A Canberra woman has been sentenced in the ACT Magistrates Court.

A child has retold of the trauma he suffered at the hands of his mum after she strangled and assaulted him in their Canberra home.

Tears could be heard in ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday when a Canberra woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, narrowly avoided full-time custody after pleading guilty to choking and common assault.

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The court was told the woman, in the words of her seven-year-old child, went “bonkers” after she saw him cutting up curtains and other items with scissors at home on April 18, 2022.

Reading from the statement of agreed facts, Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker said the woman threw a book at him and choked him.

Ms Walker said the mother then forced her child into a bath and threw two shoes at him.

The court heard the boy suffered a bruise to his eye and temple as well as psychological trauma from the disgusting attack.

The Canberra woman leaving ACT Magistrates Court.

Neighbours overheard the assault on the young child and called the police who rushed to the Canberra home.

People in the public gallery began to weep as the prosecutor read out the child’s victim statement which the child chose to express in drawings and words.

The words “scared”, “hurt” and “sad” accompanied depictions of the child and his mum on the court tendered documents.

The court heard in the drawings the child wrote “I was struggling to breath” during the choking and how he thought he was “going to die”, along with the child saying the woman pushed him into the shower and yelled at him.

They even said he saw a “big smudge” in his vision while he was being choked and nearly fainted.

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The woman’s defence team provided context around the incident, saying she was a single mother who was suffering from her severe mental health along with “intergenerational trauma”, and had a lack of support.

Her lawyer said the woman claimed it was the “worst thing she has ever done” with the child no longer in her care.

In her sentencing, Ms Walker said the woman tried to downplay the atrocious assault, victim blaming the child before telling police “okay, maybe I was a bit rough”.

The woman pleaded guilty to choking and common assault and was sentenced to 15 months’ jail, suspended for three years.