Thursday 30 November 2017

Not A Fit Mother...

Leeds Crown Court heard the victim of Natalie Dennison’s violence had been looking after another woman’s baby while she went out drinking with Dennison and another woman to the Red Lion in Heckmondwike on the evening of November 28, 2015.
Martin Robertshaw, prosecuting, said when the three women returned they found the baby, who was teething, was crying and blamed the babysitter for not looking after her properly.
Dennison pushed her on to the couch before grabbing her hair and dragging her into the kitchen, punching her in the face on the way. She was “subjected to a sustained assault” with Dennison punching her to various parts of her body. At one stage she was pushed into a dog cage before she was allowed outside.
Dennison told her not to report it saying she knew what they could do to her.
Lovely!
The court heard from a probation officer that Dennison blamed drink for her actions.
She regretted what had happened and since then she had stopped drinking and was now in a settled relationship.
Ah, the usual excuses. And why are they the usual excuses? Because they work, of course!
Dennison, 36 of Howarth Lane, Lockwood, admitted assault and was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for 18 months.
She was also given a two month curfew from 7pm to 7am and ordered to pay £200 compensation.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC told her it was a “nasty and unpleasant attack” which caused her victim great fear but he accepted the delay in the case was not her fault and in the 17 months since she had taken steps to address her drinking.
And she gets to keep the child, of course.

3 comments:

jack ketch said...

Does the article's silence give us a clue as to the babysitter's age? Does the fact she could be forced into a dog cage perhaps says something about her size? Sounds to me like the babysitter was a young teenager herself. But then surely the 'mother' would have been forced to sign the Register etc?

"Not a fit mother" really doesn't cover it.

Ted Treen said...

These days Ruth Ellis would have received just a small fine.

JuliaM said...

"Sounds to me like the babysitter was a young teenager herself."

Almost certainly. And probably a relation of the accused.

"These days Ruth Ellis would have received just a small fine."

If that!