A magistrate's court in southern Malacca state fined Wong Wai Choong, a housewife and mother of three, RM3,000 (S$1,300) after she pleaded guilty to ill-treating a child, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, her lawyer, Ms Kumari Bala, said on Tuesday.

'She was lucky that she was only fined ... The bruises were quite severe,' Ms Kumari said.

Wong, 33, was charged with mistreating her 9-year-old daughter last March after neighbours reported her. Prosecutors said that Wong had caned her daughter on her hands and legs and dripped candle wax on her hands.

Ms Kumari said the daughter had provoked her mother, who was pregnant with her third child at the time, by being 'stubborn, neglecting her studies, telling lies ... in that sense the mother was very angry'.

Wong's husband also does not have a permanent job, leading to additional stress, Ms Kumari said. The three children, the eldest of whom is 12, are still staying with Wong, she said.

Severe ill-treatment of children by parents is not common in Asia, and such cases rarely come out in the open. Prosecutions are even more rare. -- AP