Bash mum jailed for drugs

Failed 15 screening tests for cannabis use

A LAUNCESTON mother who narrowly avoided jail for brutally beating another woman has been locked up for two months after smoking cannabis.

In December last year, Katrina Jane Cunningham was ordered to undergo a 12-month home detention order — with a condition she not take illicit drugs — after assaulting a woman in 2018, and leaving her with a fractured forearm, nose and cheekbone.

Cunningham punched the victim twice, and kicked her neck after she’d fallen to the ground, taking the woman’s car keys and using her phone to take photos while she lay on the floor bleeding.

Acting judge Brian Martin noted Cunningham had been described as an “excellent mother” who had entered a stable relationship and “established a safe and loving home” for her kindergarten-age child.

He sentenced Cunningham, who had pleaded guilty to assault and has since stopped taking opiates, to home detention, so she could continue caring for her child and continue to rehabilitate from her longterm drug issues.

However, after returning 15 urine screening tests with positive results for cannabis use, Cunningham had her home detention order cancelled by the Supreme Court.

Her driver’s licence was cancelled in March, meaning she could no longer drive her child to school.

Judge Michael Pearce said since the home detention order was made, “there has not been a single negative test”.

“There were no doubt reasons which led you to use cannabis, including stress arising from bullying of your child,” he said. “However, even when it was so obvious that the likely consequence of continued cannabis use was imprisonment, you were unwilling or unable to comply.”

Recognising Cunningham had taken steps to rehabilitate herself, however, the judge said he would adopt a “lenient approach”.

Cancelling the order, he sentenced Cunningham to five months’ jail, but suspended the last three months.