‘My daughter’s no criminal’: Mum takes aim at mental health services
The mother of a Dunedin woman with obsessive-compulsive disorder jailed for abusing her says her daughter is no criminal.
“This thing inside her has taken over,” Patricia Cumming said.
She took aim at “shocking” mental health services.
Anita Cumming, 39, had managed the disorder for many years but recently had struggled, her mother said.
She formerly ran her own drama school, put on countless plays and even had a couple of bit-part roles in TV show Shortland Street.
On Tuesday, though, she was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment when she appeared at the Dunedin District Court on three charges of breaching a protection order.
Over a three-day span in February, Anita Cumming woke her 71-year-old mother repeatedly at night, screaming at her and forcing her mother to clean to her meticulous standards.
Patricia Cumming got a total of six hours sleep during the period. There was further unpermitted contact with the victim in April.
It all came while Anita Cumming was serving a sentence of intensive supervision for an episode in August when she became furious about blueberries her mother had bought and then hit her with a bottle.
In court, Anita Cumming howled throughout the sentencing hearing, repeatedly screaming at her mother, who was sitting in the public gallery.
Judge Michael Turner repeatedly asked her to restrain herself, but she had to be carried out by Corrections guards and put in an adjacent courtroom and was beamed in by audiovisual link (on mute) so sentencing could take place unheeded.
It was a “fear of contamination” that had caused her daughter to lash out, Patricia Cumming said.
“She’s not a criminal . . . She’s got a severe problem.” Despite the recent turbulent years, Patricia Cumming stood by her daughter and would continue to offer her unwavering love and support.
She attributed Anita Cumming’s decline to her treatment through the mental-health system. “She’s in the too-hard basket.”
While on bail at Wakari Hospital, Anita Cumming was in a ward with insanitary conditions. “There was faeces on the floor and blood on the wall.” She said she begged hospital bosses to move her daughter to another ward but they declined.
Eventually the defendant was caught leaving the facility and sent to Christchurch Women’s Prison.