Woman admits assaulting partner's son

A Rotorua woman threw her partner's 13-year-old son on to a bed and tried to strangle him during an argument.

The 45-year-old, who has been granted interim name suppression, admitted a charge of assaulting a child when she appeared before Judge James Weir in the Rotorua District Court yesterday.

She was originally charged with assaulting a child with intent to injure, but police amended the charge before she pleaded guilty.

Lawyer Harry Edward told the court earlier in the day he had serious concerns about the original charge.

"The charges are over-pitched," he told the court.

"She admits there was contact but the way it is pitched is too high ... it involved her partner's son. The complainant was aggressive and confrontational."

The teenager had been living with his father and the woman for three weeks, when an argument started between him and his father at 3pm on June 20. He was sent to his bedroom and his father and sister went out, leaving the teenager at home with the woman and her two teenage daughters.

The boy started hitting the bedroom walls with a tennis racquet and the woman's daughter got into a fight with him.

The woman tried to separate them but the teenager called the woman names and invited her to hit him, which she did, punching him in the cheek. She then pushed him face-down onto the bed, straddled his back, put her hands around his neck and began strangling him, the summary said.

Mr Edward requested his client be referred to Mana Social Services for a restorative justice meeting to be held between the woman and the victim, as she was a first-time offender.

Judge Weir continued name suppression for the woman until sentencing and remanded her to reappear in court on November 16.

- ROTORUA DAILY POST