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A paediatrician has called a mother's abuse on her daughter the worst she has seen in her professional practice.
Mother of five, Taase Suaesi-Faamau, 37, was jailed for three years at Christchurch District Court yesterday after admitting causing grievous bodily harm with intent to her eight-year-old daughter.
She slammed the girl's face into the floor twice and hit her on the buttocks with a plastic toy chair leg causing extensive bruising and swelling to the right side of her face, with broken facial bones.
The court was told a paediatrician described the case as the worst she had seen.
Judge Stephen Erber called the case "severe physical abuse".
He said the child, while nearly physically healed, would have considerable psychological scars.
He said Suaesi-Faamau had been repeatedly warned to avoid the behaviour, which was abhorrent to all cultures.
"Your culture is going to have to change because ours will not."
- NZPA
