Katherine mum pleads guilty to inciting assault in schoolyard spat sparked by Instagram ‘disagreement’

A woman who encouraged her teenage daughter to ‘smash’ a schoolyard rival’s ‘head in’ after a falling out over Instagram has been forced to leave town as a result, a court has heard.

A KATHERINE woman who encouraged her teenage daughter to “smash” a schoolyard rival’s “head in” after a falling out over Instagram has been forced to leave town as a result, a court has heard.

The woman, who the NT News has chosen not to name to protect the identities of the children involved, pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court to inciting the assault by her 13-year-old daughter.

Prosecutor Patrick Curtin said the woman’s daughter’s friendship with two other girls had “deteriorated” following “disagreements” over the social media platform when all four converged on the local McDonald’s on November 4 last year.

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Mr Curtin said the woman had tracked the two other girls down via instant messages between them and her daughter when she confronted them after school, yelling for her daughter to “smash her head in”.

“The defendant repeated these words of incitement several times, the defendant then pushed (her daughter) towards the victim twice and said ‘go there … smash her’,” he said.

The woman’s sister, who was also present, then punched one of the girls in the head, grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground where she continued to assault her.

The woman tried to restrain her sister while the victim’s friend tried to pull her out from under her and the woman’s daughter then pulled the second girl’s hair and punched her in the head several times.

Mr Curtin said the woman did nothing to stop her daughter assaulting the second girl before her sister “flung her head first onto the floor and kicked her in the back”.

Defence lawyer Clancy Dane said his client had become “incredibly concerned” about things she had seen on Instagram and had not received a satisfactory response from the school or the other girls’ parents.

“She reached what might be termed a breaking point and has gone there with her daughter and this other woman, confronted these girls and behaved in a way which she accepts was completely inappropriate,” he said.

Judge Michael Carey sentenced the woman to a three month community corrections order, including community work.

“This was a particularly nasty situation where you encouraged that young girl to fight and bash up those other girls because of something that happened on social media and your sister also became involved,” he said.

“In any event, I note your record, you haven’t been in that sort of trouble for a long time, I’m going to give you an opportunity.”

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