Woman boxes child for wrong spelling

A young woman who badly beat her daughter because the child was unable to complete a spelling task, will be sentenced on June 21.

Though the charges were very serious, Simone Harrison, an unemployed 27 year-old resident of a Kingston 13 address caused the court to erupt in laughter when she answered to her charge of cruelty to a child.

She told the court she was "guilty with destination". After the laughter at Harrison's misnomer subsided, an attorney corrected her, explaining that she should have said, 'Guilty with explanation".

Harrison went on to tell the court why she hit her seven-year-old daughter.

"I was teaching her to spell the letter 'one' and she say she cannot spell it, so I hit her," Harrison said.

Swelling and pain

According to reports, the incident occurred on May 9. The child was at home, when Harrison attempted to hit her on her hand because she was unable to spell the word.

The child then blocked the hit, which further enraged Harrison. She then hit the child in her face, which caused swelling and pain.

The child reported that she could not sleep on the night of the incident due to the severity of the pain.

Anonymous call

The following morning, Harrison used hot water to bathe the swelling, however it scorched the child's face.

Someone made an anonymous call to the police and reported the matter. Harrison was subsequently arrested and charged.

The presiding judge, senior resident magistrate Judith Pusey, admonished the parent after hearing what transpired.

"If children were born with all the knowledge in their head, they wouldn't have to go to school. This is not the way to approach the situation because there are words you don't know yourself, like 'explanation'," Pusey said.

She then ordered that a social enquiry report be conducted before the sentencing, and Harrison's bail was extended.