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A mother sentenced to jail for her part in assaulting her 15-year-old son appealed against her sentence in the Court of Appeal at Auckland yesterday.
Barbara Joy Bishop, 42, had been sentenced to nine months' imprisonment by Judge Michael Crosbie in Timaru District Court in February after being found guilty of assault.
Her former husband was sentenced to 12 months for his role in the assault, in which the boy was repeatedly kicked and punched and hog-tied with tape.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Crosbie said that what had happened was not about the correction and discipline of children with emotional or behavioural problems.
"It is about an unjustified, excessive, brutal use of force by your then husband and you assisting in it."
The judge said Bishop could have intervened to limit the violence after her son was tied up.
Bishop has a previous conviction for attempting to procure murder.
Yesterday, defence lawyer Sarah Saunderson-Warner told the appeal court a jail sentence was not warranted.
She said Bishop, who gave evidence that she was too terrified to intervene, should have received a community-based sentence, given her level of involvement.
Matthew Downs, appearing for the Crown, said the nine months imposed in the district court was justified.
"This was a nasty incident. There was an element of humiliation of the complainant, a teenage lad."
Mr Downs said the boy made the point in evidence that his mother attempted to intervene only later, when the van they were in stopped at Geraldine, several kilometres from Timaru.
The lawyer said that given their relationship, what happened constituted a breach of trust.
The appeal court judges reserved their decision.
- NZPA
