Woman hit girls in her care

After taking in two girls who were distant relatives, a Wellington woman saw them removed after they disclosed she had been hitting them.

The woman, whose name is suppressed to prevent identification of the girls, had taken them in in 2008 and raised them.

Wellington District Court judge Chris Tuohy said yesterday that the woman had devoted eight years of her life to them and had done a good job, but for hitting them during arguments.

He said she was faced with challenging behaviour from the oldest girl - who is now 14 - and had anger management issues. The younger girl is now 12.

The woman had pleaded guilty to threatening to hit one with a baseball bat, hitting one with a metal strap and a representative charge of slapping both girls.

The woman had admitted she slapped them with an open hand during arguments over chores when they would not listen to her.

She had found the older girl in a boy’s bedroom and had held the baseball bat over her head.

When the girl asked if she was going to hit her with it, the woman lowered the bat and walked away.

Later she was woken to find the girl and the boy on the trampoline in her backyard in the early hours of the morning. She sent the boy away and hit the girl on the forearm with a metal strap leaving a red mark.

They had been removed from her care in 2016, but both maintained contact with her.

The judge said the woman had now done anger management counselling and some voluntary community work and he did not think further penalty was needed.

He convicted and discharged her on all charges.