Former classmate of Jasmine’s gives evidence in court about helping her run away after noticing huge bruise on face
A classmate who helped a “really scared” girl run away after noticing a huge bruise on her face said Jasmine told her death would “feel so much better” than being at home.
The former classmate of a girl allegedly driven to suicide by her mother’s torment says the girl told her death would feel better than being at home.
Jenni Wilmott, 56, is standing trial in the Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to multiple charges, including manslaughter, criminal neglect and assault.
The charges arise from the 2018 death of Ms Wilmott’s daughter, Jasmine, who took her own life.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, an Aberfoyle Park High School classmate of Jasmine’s in 2018 told the court they became friends and Jasmine confided in her about her home life.
“She told me that she was forced to do things at home, cleaning … like her mum told her what to do, she had to do it or she’d get punished for it,” she said.
“There was a time where she said death would feel so much better than being at home because she was scared to go back.
“She felt like she was being treated like a slave.
“There was one time she spoke to me about how the police had done a welfare check … and then when, like the police spoke to her she basically had to put on a face and pretend like everything was okay or she’d get into trouble.”
The classmate said she saw Jasmine with bruises and scratches on a “fair few” occasions, including on the last day she ever saw Jasmine.
She said they went into the bathroom together where she noticed a bruise on Jasmine’s face that covered “most of her face”.
“She was very distressed. She was in tears,” the classmate said.
“She wouldn’t say really say much about the bruising, other than she didn’t want to go home.
“She was really scared. She was scared that it was going to get worse and it had gotten really bad.”
The classmate said she took Jasmine back to her dad’s girlfriend house, where Jasmine told them her mother had found out she had social media and she got in “a lot of trouble” for it.
She told the court they also saw “really bad” bruises on Jasmine’s leg, which looked like kick marks, as well as on her hip and her stomach, which she took photos of on her iPad.
The court heard they then took Jasmine to the classmate’s father’s house and had planned to make a police report the next day.
However, the classmate said police officers knocked on the door shortly after they arrived as Jasmine had been reported missing.
“They didn’t allow us to make that report, they just came and picked her up,” she said.
The classmate said she never saw Jasmine again after that as she didn’t return to the school.
The body worn footage from the day of Ms Wilmott’s arrest on October 29, 2020 and played to the court was released to The Advertiser.
In it Ms Wilmott is told by officers that she is being placed under arrest on suspicion about how Jasmine was treated.
“I’m not guilty of anything, I loved that little girl,” Ms Wilmott tells them.
“This feels like a big nightmare to be honest.”
The video then shows Ms Wilmott being taken to the Christies Beach police station for a formal interview, where she vehemently denied assaulting Jasmine, saying it’s “absolutely not true”.
“I would never, ever, ever hit Jasmine,” she said.
Ms Wilmott told officers Jasmine would occasionally get bruises because she was a “bit clumsy” and had spatial awareness issues.
In her opening, prosecutor Jemma Litster told the court Ms Wilmott showed an “overarching resentment” towards Jasmine throughout her life that resulted in her failing to provide her with adequate food, clothing and shelter.
The court heard Jasmine was underfed in Ms Wilmott’s care, weighing only 32kg at the age of 15.
“Further Jenni Wilmott failed to provide adequate conditions of personal safety, by assaulting her physically and verbally, causing others to hit her,” Ms Litster said.
“Ms Wilmott described her as having a number of conditions, which she did not, starting with reactive attachment disorder and also later autism spectrum disorder.”
Ms Litster said Jasmine was made to stay in a “freezing cold” laundry and a tent at other properties, and the door was alarmed and the windows locked in her last bedroom.
In a child’s police interview from 2022, which was recently played to the court, they told police that the treatment of Jasmine “wasn’t that good” and that Ms Wilmott used to “hit her a lot”.
The trial, before Justice Sandi McDonald and in the absence of a jury, continues.
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Originally published as Former classmate of Jasmine’s gives evidence in court about helping her run away after noticing huge bruise on face
