Judge: Thug unfit to be mother

File photo / APN

A mother who admitted an assault charge yesterday was called a "thug" by Judge Dominic Flatley, who questioned her fitness to have a child.

Horiana Teoti Whatuira, an unemployed 20-year-old from Frankton, was charged after she punched another mother in the face on October 11, knocking her 16-month-old son from his pushchair.

The two women had previously traded parenting insults via text message and Facebook.

Prosecutor Sergeant Ian Collin told the Queenstown District Court that Whatuira was driving in Lake Ave at 12.30pm when she saw the victim pushing her son in a pushchair.

She got out of her car to talk about money the woman owed her and "without warning ... grabbed hold of the victim's hair, pulling her to the ground and began to punch the victim in the head".

She knocked over the pushchair and the infant "spilled to the ground", Mr Collin said. Mother and son received minor facial injuries, including cuts and bruising, but did not need medical attention.

Whatuira's lawyer, Phena Byrne, said the text and Facebook messages were "not pleasant" and had highlighted her client's "mothering skills".

Judge Flatley said he was "disturbed" by the "appalling assault" by Whatuira, herself the mother of a young child.

"You attack her and she's pushing a baby in a pram and the baby falls out ... This is not the Bronx," he said.

"I don't understand people like you. It just makes you a thug ... I question the appropriateness of you having a child."

He remanded Whatuira for sentencing on December 13 and ordered her to undergo a pre-sentencing mental health assessment.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES