Mother hit daughter with lamp and cut son's arm with scissors

A mother, who attacked her children during her violent outbursts, cut her 14-year-old son's arm multiple times with a pair of scissors and threatened to slice off his finger.

The parent of three lacked social support and suffered from schizophrenia, and she would have had a relapse during the time of the offences, the court heard.

Yesterday, the judge called for a mandatory treatment order (MTO) suitability report for the woman at the prosecution's urging, after she was convicted of voluntarily causing hurt to her children.

If given an MTO, she will undergo treatment for her mental conditions in lieu of jail time.

The prosecution said "given her medical vulnerabilities, poor social support with limited insight into her illnesses and history of poor compliance, she will benefit from a period of mandatory inpatient admission and rehabilitation".

The court heard that the woman, 43, had care and control of her children - two girls, aged 15 and 12, and a boy, 14 - who were under the shared custody of both parents following their divorce in 2018.

Their identities cannot be revealed because of a gag order to protect the victims' identities.

In February 2020, the children entered their mother's room to use her phone to call their father when she was not at home. They were able to call him only through their mother's phone, which was kept in her room.

Wanting to call her father again, the youngest daughter sneaked into the mother's room through a window in the toilet but damaged some furniture as she climbed in.

When her siblings heard their mother returning, they stalled her as their sister left the room, but their mother discovered what they had done and flew into a rage.

She scolded them and grabbed a pair of scissors, which she used to cut her son's forearm at least three times by pressing the blades together, causing his arm to bleed as he wept.

She threatened to cut off his finger the next time he entered her room and threw a broomstick at him, but missed.

Separately, in May that year, the woman scolded her eldest daughter for dirtying her clothes and slapped her face multiple times in front of the other children and beat the girl repeatedly with a table lamp.

The girl raised her arm as the lamp struck her, causing the light bulb to dislodge. The woman grabbed the bulb and threw it at her daughter.

In June, the matter came to light when her eldest child told a school counsellor about her mother's outbursts and was taken to hospital with her brother, accompanied by a child protection officer.

The oldest daughter suffered forearm bruises and scars on her limbs while the boy had scars on his arm. They were both assessed to suffer from trauma too.

Following her initial arrest on Jan 1 last year, the woman failed to report for bail several times, which on one occasion was due to her mental health issues. She was arrested again on March 29 this year.

The judge accepted the prosecution's request for an MTO suitability report to be made.

The woman remains remanded and is due back in court next month.