Mother assaulted her child

A LOCHABER woman held one of her children’s head under the bathwater after she had whispered to her own mother she was going to drown the child.

Fort William Sheriff Court on Tuesday heard details of the assault, but nothing can be reported that would identify the child or its siblings.

The child was seen to be upset when attending school the following day and teachers discovered what had happened, Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood was told.

The woman, in her 30s, admitted assaulting the child, pushing the youngster’s head under bathwater at an address in Lochaber on May 24 this year.

Procurator fiscal Andrew Shanks said that the child’s maternal grandmother was overseeing bath time. ‘She whispered to her mother she was going to drown the child and pushed the child’s head under water and held [the child] under. The accused was spoken to by police, admitted the offence and tendered an apology.’

The woman’s defence agent said that all her children were now on the child protection register, the children’s panel is involved and she could only see them under the supervision of her own mother and her mother’s partner.

The woman is suffering from depression and her medication has been changed, he added.

Sheriff Fleetwood deferred sentence for three months to September 12, calling for a supplemented community justice and social work report and advice from the children’s panel.