Mum guilty of violent assault

A jury took only two hours to find a woman guilty of beating her 9-year-old daughter and covering the injuries up with face paint before letting her travel alone on a domestic flight.

The woman, who cannot be named, was found guilty of two charges of assaulting the girl with intent to injure, hitting her in the head with a hammer, failing to seek medical attention for her, and two charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The verdicts were handed down in Napier District Court yesterday, a week after the trial began.

In his closing address, Crown prosecutor Steve Manning said it was only due to the perceptiveness of two Air New Zealand cabin crew members that the girl’s injuries came to authorities’ attention.

The woman dropped her daughter at Hawke’s Bay Airport so she could fly to Christchurch as an unaccompanied minor.

The cabin crew became suspicious and removed the face paint on the flight, revealing her injuries. If they had not been so perceptive, the girl would have been collected by a relative from Christchurch Airport and the offending may have never come to light.

Manning told the jury text messages obtained from the woman’s phone made it clear that she had assaulted the girl two days prior to the flight, because she believed her daughter had hidden money from her. The messages also revealed she had told her mother and sister a story to use if asked about the girl’s injuries.

Oranga Tamariki had custody of the girl and her two siblings.

The woman’s lawyer, Laurie McMaster, told the jury the Crown’s case rested largely on the text messages and evidence provided by the girl. ‘‘You have to be sure [the girl] is a reliable and honest witness . . . We say you can’t rely on her,’’ she said.

McMaster said there was no question that the girl had been injured, as evidenced by the photographs taken of her in hospital. But the woman had been clear that she had never hit her daughter and only became aware of the injuries when she saw the photographs in court last week.

The woman slumped to the ground in the dock and wept as the six guilty verdicts were delivered.

She was remanded in custody until sentencing in January.