Mother murders 2 year old daughter, gets 100 hrs community work.
The 27-year-old, who has permanent name suppression, admitted infanticide after an initial charge of murder was dropped.
She hit and smothered the girl for crying incessantly, leading to her choking to death on regurgitated food.
In Dunedin High Court today, Justice Graham Panckhurst said the woman could not be held fully responsible as she was severely depressed at the time of the attack.
He sentenced her to two years’ intensive supervision and 100 hours of community work.
Mate! Violence by women and violence towards men are not worth mentioning. Just keep wearing your white ribbon to show you’re against violence towards women.
This case is astounding. If the woman was not culpable on the grounds of mental illness then why wasn’t that ruled as such? The judge described this woman as “severely depressed” but that seems unlikely because someone with severe Depression would be in hospital, would not have the energy to commit such strenuous violence and would probably be found not guilty on the grounds of the mental illness.
When a man commits such horrific crimes due to Depression or any other mental illness, the Court usually sees that as an additional need to keep society safe from him. He would be told “your duty was to seek help earlier, not to take out your stress on a defenceless child. We must send a clear message to society that such violence will not be tolerated etc etc.” 100 hours community work? Incredible.
Violence is not ok, ever, except when a woman does it.
The news article also colludes with the Court’s kid-glove approach, both by emphasizing the provocation (“…for crying incessantly…”) and by using the term “intensive supervision”. Supervision is a standard sentence involving regular visits to the probation officer and participaing in programmes as directed. There is no such thing as a sentence of “intensive” supervision, and the term merely serves to exaggerate the consequence making it sound harder or more significant than it is.
Comment by Hans Laven — Mon 22nd December 2008 @ 2:28 pm