Grandmother sentenced after court hears of her ‘intentionally cruel’ reign of abuse

A grandmother who inflicted an ‘extreme punishment regime’ on her teenage grandson, including forcing him to wear nappies and deprived him of sleep, learnt her fate. What the judge said >>

Hobart grandmother to be sentenced. File picture.

A Hobart grandmother who inflicted an “extreme punishment regime” on her grandson has been sentenced to two years in prison, but has had the term wholly suspended for two years.

The woman had pleaded guilty to one count of the ill-treatment of a child, after being charged over conduct toward her grandson spanning nine months in early 2016.

In the Tasmanian Supreme Court on Wednesday, Justice Robert Pearce said imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence for the perpetrator, but actual imprisonment would be far more onerous on her due to serious illnesses that would leave her without access to medication in prison.

Justice Pearce said a community correction order would not be appropriate for the woman who only leaves the house for medical appointments.

“Nor would a home detention order, she does not leave home anymore,” his Honour said.

Justice Pearce wholly suspended the two-year sentence on the condition the woman did not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years.

During sentencing remarks Justice Pearce said the woman’s behaviour to the grandson was not motivated by cruelty but was a likely result of her becoming overwhelmed and being “no longer able to cope rationally with caring for the children”.

The woman first appeared in the Supreme Court on the charges in 2017, but was discharged from the complaint due to “extensive terminal cancer”.

Years later prosecution found the woman’s health had not deteriorated as expected, and she reappeared in court in 2023.

The matter was listed for trial in 2024, but after the woman pleaded guilty proceedings moved to disputed facts hearing.

The court heard the woman subjected her grandson to “an extreme punishment regime designed to enforce a set of detailed and prescriptive rules which she took upon herself to implement”.

“The punishment was both physical and psychological,” His honour said.

Over a number of days the court heard the grandmother made her teenage grandson wear nappies to the point of nappy rash, deprived him of sleep, filmed him naked and in painful positions for up to 14 hours at a time.

CCTV footage shown to the court showed consecutive days of abuse of the boy who is shown standing naked or in a nappy, with his hands locked behind his head and covered in bruises.

“For most people such assertions would seem implausible, however the CCTV provided largely indisputable evidence,” Justice Pearce said.

— Elise Kaine

Court hears of grandmother’s ‘intentionally cruel’ reign of abuse

A Hobart grandmother who inflicted an escalating regime of discipline upon her grandson that “moved from being reasonable to being intentionally cruel” will learn her fate in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The 68-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Justice Robert Pearce on Tuesday to hear sentencing submissions from prosecution and defence lawyers after pleading guilty to abuse.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Linda Mason SC, told the court that the woman’s criminal conduct, which took place in early 2016 when her grandson was aged 13, represented a significant breach of trust, and was aggravated both by the extreme nature of the ill treatment, and her complete lack of regard for the victim’s obvious distress.

Ms Mason submitted the defendant had attempted to conceal her conduct with the help of husband, and said there was no evidence the medical condition she was suffering from at the time had in any way reduced her moral culpability.

Ms Mason said the woman’s guilty plea followed overwhelming videotaped evidence of her abuse, and had come after the victim had testified to the court.

The Crown asked Justice Pearce to consider a sentence that reflected the community’s condemnation of child cruelty.

The defendant’s lawyer, Craig Rainbird, told the court that the former childcare worker had been undergoing cancer treatment at the time of the abuse, which had negatively impacted her mental health.

After the victim’s challenging behaviours morphed to include self-harm, the grandmother became overwhelmed and “at was her wit’s end”, Mr Rainbird said.

The court heard that the perpetrator was currently suffering from bone and lung cancer, was on daily oxygen therapy, and only left the house for medical appointments.

Mr Rainbird asked Justice Pearce to consider ordering a report on his client’s suitability for home detention.

Justice Pearce ordered the woman to return to court on Wednesday for sentence.

— Duncan Abey

Originally published as Grandmother sentenced after court hears of her ‘intentionally cruel’ reign of abuse