Brain-damaged mother sentenced for assaults

A brain-damaged Rotorua mother of nine has been sentenced for seriously assaulting two of her children.

The 37-year-old woman had previously been convicted of manslaughter after killing her former partner following years of abuse at his hands.

The Daily Post reported that Ira-Ann Jose Emery was brain damaged after her more recent partner bashed her so badly that she lost the baby she was carrying.

Emery admitted charges of assaulting her children when she appeared in Rotorua District Court.

Judge Jocelyn Munro sentenced her to four months' community detention and 18 months' intensive supervision.

The court was told she stomped on the face of one toddler while wearing boots and left the other nursing black eyes. She often beat her five-year-old daughter with a steel bar and would not send them to daycare when they were covered in bruises.

The assaults on the children, aged four and five, happened before Emery was seriously beaten by her partner, Adrian Rikihana, on September 13, 2008.

Emery was left with long-term brain damage after being beaten by her partner when pregnant with her 10th child, which she lost while recovering in Waikato Hospital.

He was sentenced to 12 years and six months' jail with a non-parole period of five years in December last year for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Emery's lawyer, Peter Birks, said she had previously been convicted of manslaughter after killing her previous partner, saying she suffered from battered woman syndrome.

- NZPA