Dinner guest attacks children

A woman who throttled two children at a dinner party showed no emotion in court as she heard how the family had struggled since.

Dawn Valena Harris, 54, was having dinner with a friend’s family for the first time at their house in Blenheim when she attacked the children.

Their son had since become withdrawn and angry, and their daughter could not sleep in her own bed anymore, the mother said in a victim impact statement, read at the Blenheim District Court on Monday.

‘‘Dawn has robbed our kids from their innocence, they won’t get that back. And we, as parents, now have to pick up the pieces . . . I’ve watched them all change in

ways I could never imagine,’’ the mother said in the statement.

‘‘While we continue to get her out of our lives, I will always have the scar on my face . . . I see Dawn every day when I look in the mirror.’’

Harris had been drinking alcohol during the evening when she misunderstood something her friend’s son said, about 7.20pm on July 19. She grabbed the boy by the throat and squeezed, a police summary of facts said.

The boy struggled to breathe and thought his head was going to explode, he later told police.

He pulled away from Harris, who had left scratches and red marks on his neck. Harris then grabbed the boy’s sister by the wrist and pulled her to the ground in a choke hold, squeezing until the girl’s face went red, until her father intervened.

The mother tried to restrain Harris by pinning her down on the ground. But Harris was still ‘‘enraged’’ and flailed her arms in the air, hitting the woman, scratching her face and pulling out clumps of her hair.

When police arrived, she gave no explanation for her behaviour.

Dawn seemed to feel no remorse, and needed help, the mother said in her statement.

She described her son as becoming angry since the attack, acting out at school and even losing interest in playing Xbox.

They struggled to find a counsellor he liked, and struggled to afford the private one he finally bonded with, the mother said.

‘‘This peeves us off because he wouldn’t need one if it wasn’t for Dawn,’’ she said.

Her children were now afraid to meet new people, she said.

The mother was getting

counselling too, and her chronic illness had been affected by the stress.

She wanted Harris’ name suppression lifted so the community could stop it happening again, she said.

Harris had pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with intent to injure and a charge of assault.

Her lawyer, Kent Arnott, said psychological assessments found Harris fit to enter a plea, although she had some mental health issues.

Harris was ‘‘horrified’’ about her behaviour, and had never acted that way before, Arnott said.

She had no previous convictions.

Arnott asked for final name suppression, saying publication of her name could affect her mental health.

Judge David Ruth said the

attacks were ‘‘very disturbing’’ and the family had suffered as a result.

After credit for a clean record and guilty pleas, Judge Ruth sentenced her to four months’ community detention, with a curfew between 7.30pm and 6am.

He also sentenced her to 12 months’ supervision, with conditions to do counselling and alcohol and drug treatment as directed by probation, and not to possess or consume alcohol or non-prescribed drugs.

He ordered her to pay $400 to each child as an emotional harm payment, and $200 to the mother, within seven days.

However, he declined the application for permanent name suppression, saying any hardships caused to Harris by the publication of her name were ‘‘the usual result of criminal offending’’.