Stepmother beat child with dog chain

A PREGNANT woman aspiring to be a midwife has been jailed after beating her stepdaughter with a metal dog chain and forcing her to drink soy sauce for not reading “properly”.

Tara Jefferson, 20, pleaded guilty in the South Australian District Court to intentionally causing harm to a child.

Judge Rosemary Davey said Jefferson, who is four months pregnant, deliberately and systematically inflicted pain on the eight-year-old girl, the daughter of her now-ex partner, last year.

Jefferson maintains the girl’s father had instructed her to discipline the child if she did not read to her properly, a claim he denies.

Judge Davey said Jefferson had punished the girl in various ways for not reading to her properly before actually using the leash.

“You punished her by putting curry paste in her mouth,” Judge Davey said.

Jefferson then made the girl drink soy sauce before telling her to take her clothes off and squirting her with a hose, at times in the face.

She then used a metal chain to strike the girl at least 10 times.

The girl was left with bruised eyes and cheeks, lacerations to her scalp, swelling to her eyes and haemorrhaging to the membrane in her eyes.

“You clearly lost self-control in your dealings with this child,” Judge Davey told Jefferson.

Judge Davey said Jefferson punished the child after a dispute with the victim’s father over a scrapped trip to Melbourne.

She said Jefferson lacked the necessary experience and parenting skills required to care for the child but it was no excuse for her actions.

Everyone knows you cannot beat a child, she said.

“That is obvious and it should have been obvious to you,” Judge Davey said.

Jefferson aspires to study midwifery, planning to return to England where one of her parents lives.

But Judge Davey said Jefferson’s plans could be difficult in light of her conviction.

The girl’s father called on Judge Davey to impose the harshest of sentences.

In a victim impact statement, he said the abuse had affected him in many ways.

His daughter screamed for four hours straight after the assault.

“This made me feel totally useless as a parent,” he said.

Jefferson fell pregnant after she separated from the girl’s father.

Judge Davey said Jefferson would have the child in prison, where she hoped she would receive adequate supervision and help to care for the child.

Jefferson, who sat quietly and emotionless in the dock, was sentenced to 18 months’ jail, with a minimum non-parole period of six months.

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