Tania appeared in court on Wednesday, where she was found to have used unnecessary force and fined $750. Photo / Nine
Tania appeared in court on Wednesday, where she was found to have used unnecessary force and fined $750. Photo / Nine
A Perth mum, who left her daughter with a bruise after smacking her with a wooden spoon, has been fined $750 and convicted of common assault.
Tania, 35, was convicted of smacking her nine-year-old daughter in an incident from October last year after she saw her child eating old meat she had been specifically told not to eat.
The 35-year-old mum had told her daughter to avoid the old meat, which had been prepared for the family's pet dog and filled with worming tablets.
Despite her mother's warnings, the girl took the hamburger meat out of the fridge and started eating it.
"I woke up in the morning and she was nice and quiet just sitting in the theatre room eating away these burgers that were supposed to be for the dogs," Tania told 9 News.
"I panicked and out of frustration, having a lot of difficulties with her behaviour I just had a moment of frustration."
The mother, hit her nine-year-old daughter with the spoon after she disobeyed her in their Perth home last October and has been charged with common assault. Photo / Channel Seven
"It was the extreme panic thinking, 'did I put that medication in those burgers?' The fact that she could have been on the floor frothing at the mouth, that was my main thought."
Tania was yesterday convicted of common assault and using an unnecessary amount of force in the incident after police found her daughter had been left with a bruise.
The 35-year-old pleaded guilty to common assault and was handed a suspended $750 fine and a spent conviction in Perth Magistrates Court.
The mother revealed that although the ordeal has been traumatising for her, she "wouldn't have done anything differently." Photo / Nine
Her defence lawyer, Stephen Preece told the court the mum had no criminal record and her daughter had ongoing behavioural issues, including ADHD, for which she was seeing a paediatrician.
The magistrate said he was satisfied it was unlikely to happen again, and a second charge of having care for a child that was reckless was dropped.
That charge related to a complaint the nine-year-old had made that her mother used to lock her in her room, WAToday reported.
"You struck your nine-year-old with a wooden spoon and by your plea you accept that the force you used was more than necessary to correct her," the magistrate told the court.
"I'm satisfied this is unlikely to happen again."
Tania told 9 News she had cried every day since being charged by police.
"I haven't been the same since, shaking, mortified," she said.
"There are so many other people out there who deserve to go through what I've gone through and they're sort of putting all their time and effort onto me."
Despite the ordeal, Tania said she was still going to discipline her children.
"I believe that discipline helps our society and our children, they've got to learn respect and integrity and you just can't get away with doing naughty stuff," she said.
