Updated: 9:00am – A mother who beat up her six-year-old with a belt and a kitchen knife was imprisonment for five months by the Nasinu Magistrates Court.
Nasinu Magistrate Sofia Hamza in sentencing the 30-year-old cashier said the court was duty bound to send a message to the society that domestic violence against children would not be tolerated.
The woman had pleaded guilty to a charge of causing grievous harm to her biological daughter in March this year which resulted to the six-year-old’s sustaining laceration on her thigh and multiple bruises and marks on her body.
The incident had occurred after the complainant had refused to go to school with her sisters.
The court heard that the mother had hit the child with the kitchen knife and held her tightly while assaulting her so that she could not escape.
She was also belted after which the complainant hid under the bed as she was scared of the mother.
The matter was reported to the Police by the complainant’s teacher.
Magistrate Hamza said the matter was a case of breach of trust and the victim was a six-year-old.
The woman told Court that she was remorseful of her act and sought forgiveness of the court.
Considering that the woman had already spent seven days in remand, Magistrate Hamza said she will serve four months and three weeks in prison.
After serving her prison term, the woman has been ordered a suspended sentence for three years.
-Fiji Sun
