Mother filmed smacking child admits assault

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/10/mother-smacking-child-assault-sentence

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A mother who was filmed smacking her five-year-old daughter on a camera hidden in the home by the child's father has been given a community sentence order.

Magistrates were shown "extremely distressing" footage of the Cambridge mother grabbing her child by the leg and pulling her across the bed before turning her over and smacking her on the backside with force at least four times.

The mother, who cannot be identified, covered her ears as the court watched video of her beating her screaming daughter. Her partner had concealed the camera on top of a bedroom wardrobe because he suspected his wife of ill-treating their daughter.

The footage recorded the woman struggling to undress the youngster for bed and then forcefully smacking her four times. The mother is heard repeatedly shouting at the screaming youngster: "Shut up or I will hit you."

She is also recorded pleading with the child to calm down and asks for a cuddle but the child refuses and replies: "But you hurt me, mummy."

Cambridge magistrates were told the father went straight to police after watching the film. Laura Mardell, prosecuting, said: "She has been in a relationship with her partner, who had some concern about the behaviour of the mother so decided to put a hidden camera in the defendant's bedroom on top of the wardrobe.

"She made admissions that she thought that the level of smacking given to the child was too much and she felt bad for it." The mother pleaded guilty to assault by beating and was given a six-month community order with supervision requirement for 180 hours of unpaid work.

The chairman of the bench, Adrian Bush, told her: "What we have seen was extremely distressing. You have to be punished and that will be through unpaid work."

The unmarried couple, from Cambridge, have split up since the incident last summer. The father now has custody of the girl. After the court case the father said: "It's been tough for me and my daughter. It's all very complicated. I've had people coming round to support me all morning."

The child's maternal grandmother said: "Do you really think it was that bad if she can still stay with my daughter? It's ridiculous. This has been terrible for her. There are two sides to the story, put it that way."

It is illegal for a parent or carer to smack their child, except where it amounts to "reasonable chastisement", according to the Children Act 2004. Smacking that causes visible bruising, grazes, scratches, swellings or cuts is not permitted. Last month Maggie Atkinson, the children's commissioner for England, called for a total ban on smacking.

However, the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, has defended the right of parents to smack their children in certain circumstances. He told the Mail on Sunday last year: "You chastise children when they are bad, as my parents did me. I'm not opposed to smacking. It is to be used occasionally."

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