Judge Stephanie Edwards delivered Mele Pasikale a lesson in child psychology in the Palmerston North District Court (file photo).

An able-bodied mother who assaulted a woman with a disability in a spat over a mobility car park was setting a bad example for her watching children, a judge says.

"Children learn by example," Judge Stephanie Edwards told Mele Pasikale in the Palmerston North District Court on Tuesday.

"They will remember what you did more than what you said afterwards."

And what she did was not pretty – smashing the woman about the head and body.

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Pasikale's husband drove to a Countdown supermarket in Palmerston North one day in March. She and her children were passengers.

He parked in a disability space before going inside.

A woman, with a below-the-knee amputation, parked next to Pasikale, stared at the car and then went to go inside.

Pasikale, 8 months pregnant at the time, took offence, got out of the car and started verbally abusing the woman.

The woman said Pasikale should not be parked in a disability space.

Pasikale reacted by punching the woman in the head and body before going away.

The woman suffers from a condition that means she cannot remember what people's faces look like. So, she took out her cellphone to get a photo of Pasikale for when she reported the incident to police.

Pasikale then demanded the phone before assaulting the woman again, only stopping when a member of the public intervened.

The judge said the woman no longer went grocery shopping on her own and had lost much of her independence through fear.

She worried about meeting Pasikale in public, as her condition meant she had no idea what her attacker would look like, the judge said.

Pasikale was sentenced to nine months' supervision for common assault.