Children saw chair attack

A WOMAN smashed her way into a Launceston home and attacked its female occupant with a broken chair leg while the victim’s two small children cried out in distress.

Dana Elise Smith, 31, of Devonport, was placed on a drug treatment order by Justice Robert Pearce yesterday when she faced the Supreme Court in Launceston for sentencing over the August 2018 attack.

Smith had gone to the victim’s Newstead home because she believed her then-partner was inside, Justice Pearce said, and banged on the door demanding for him to come out.

But with her partner having already left out the back of the property, Smith used a broken chair leg to smash her way through the front door.

She went to the bedroom, where she confronted the female occupant and used the chair leg to hit her three or four times. The victim’s children, aged two and nine months, were screaming in distress, Justice Pearce said.

Smith was still holding the chair leg when she was arrested 15 minutes later.

Justice Pearce said the victim only sustained some welts to her leg, although it was “impossible to predict whether the children will be affected” by what they saw.

Smith had pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, common assault and injuring property.

She was sentenced to 11 months’ imprisonment, which she will not have to serve provided she complies with the drug treatment order.