struck him with it between 30 and 40 times<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe force of the strikes left large, raised welts on the boy\u2019s legs, buttocks, back, arms and hands. <\/p>\n
He was in significant pain and struggled to walk as a result. <\/p>\n
Police arrived at the address a short time after they were alerted to the beating and arrested the woman. <\/p>\n
She was charged with injuring with intent to injure, which carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. <\/p>\n
The woman told police that her son had eaten food he was not meant to, so she \u201cgave him the stick\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Time will tell\u2019<\/p>\n
In arguing for the discharge without conviction, Laird acknowledged the seriousness of the offending and submitted her client was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder at the time. <\/p>\n
The trauma-related symptoms stemmed from the woman\u2019s background, which included family violence, neglect and poor social support as a child, Laird said.<\/p>\n
She has no previous convictions and has made significant efforts to address her offending, including by completing parenting and preventing violence courses and attending counselling, it was submitted.<\/p>\n
Laird said the woman did a lot of work for the community and her church, and was generally described as a kind, warm and easygoing person. <\/p>\n
She submitted that the consequences of a conviction \u2013 potentially losing her job and career \u2013 were severe, making it out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending, which she argued was reduced by the mitigating factors. <\/p>\n
While the woman had been reinstated to her role, that could change depending on the outcome of the criminal proceedings, the court heard. <\/p>\n
The regulatory authority for the woman\u2019s profession was also aware of the offending and may take action if a conviction were entered.<\/p>\n
![\"Oranga]()
Oranga Tamariki took the boy from his parents’ care for four weeks. <\/p>\n
Sutton accepted there could be significant consequences if the woman were convicted, and acknowledged the steps she had taken to better herself.<\/p>\n
However, Sutton questioned how balanced the reports to the court were, noting that much of the woman\u2019s background information was self-reported.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to a section in the pre-sentence report that referred to a police investigation suggesting the boy had been subjected to significant assaults for multiple years by both parents.<\/p>\n
Sutton said that had come up as part of the investigation, but police had focused on the one event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is still in the background,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Laird said it was not accepted that there had been any assaults other than the one for which the woman had been charged.<\/p>\n
Sutton acknowledged that Oranga Tamariki would have seriously considered the family\u2019s circumstances before it returned the boy to his parents.<\/p>\n
He said the future would reveal whether the woman had learned anything. <\/p>\n
\u201cTime will tell,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Respected in her profession\u2019<\/p>\n
After the submissions, Judge Turitea Bolstad introduced herself to the woman and her husband, who was seated in the public gallery.<\/p>\n
She said she had \u201ca lot\u201d of information to support the application for a discharge without conviction, and told the woman to \u201cbreathe easy\u201d, as she was going to grant it.<\/p>\n
The judge proceeded to give her reasons, which included the woman\u2019s background and the significant stress she had been under.<\/p>\n
She noted there had also been a death and illness in the woman\u2019s family and she was caring for her son, who was going through a challenging period, by herself at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has all resulted in [the woman] responding inappropriately, and what I can make from the information before me, out of character,\u201d Judge Bolstad said. <\/p>\n
She accepted the assault was serious but found it had also been mitigated, including by the woman having done all she could to take responsibility and to get help.<\/p>\n
The judge said the woman was \u201crespected in her profession\u201d, and accepted there was a real risk she would lose her employment and career if convicted.<\/p>\n
This would have a significant impact on the woman and her family, the judge found.<\/p>\n
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Bolstad wished the woman well.<\/p>\n
She left the dock in tears and hugged her husband in the gallery, sobbing loudly as she held him. <\/p>\n
Tara Shaskey is an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She joined NZME in 2022 and has worked as a journalist since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well-dressed and visibly shaken, the woman clasped her hands tightly in front of her, releasing them only to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,33524,14796,15970,1364,3523,111,43,139,69,12886,22639,48938,16715,102],"class_list":["post-453815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-avoids","tag-beating","tag-conviction","tag-her","tag-medical","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-professional","tag-son","tag-stick","tag-taranaki","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}