A FOSTER mum who locked a 12-year-old girl in her room and tied her up has had her torture conviction overturned because of allegedly incompetent legal representation.

The woman, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to the charge in the Beenleigh District Court in September 2010.



She was sentenced to four-and-a-half years' jail, to be released on parole in 2013.



However, she took her case to the Court of Appeal in February where she argued her plea of guilty was made by mistake because of incompetent legal advice.



Her new lawyer, Angus Edwards, argued the woman did not understand the nature of the charge, and that her previous lawyer had "instructed her to simply stand up in court and say guilty".



She said she had not tried to torture the girl, but had instead locked her in her room because she was violent, killed animals, set fire to items in the house and wrecked furniture.



"(She) swore that when she locked the complainant in her bedroom at night it was not done to cause the complainant significant emotional and psychological pain, but to keep her family and the complainant safe," Justice Hugh Fraser said in a written judgment published today.



Justice Fraser found the woman's lawyer, who has since died, had not properly explained the charge to her, and that his advice to her was "grossly inadequate".



The Court of Appeal set aside the woman's conviction and ordered she stand trial on the charge.