Mother who was jailed for slapping children is freed after judge says her actions were 'similar to those of many loving parents across the land'

She slapped her 15-year-old son in the face, banged two of her sons' heads together and slapped two sons on another occasion

Having been sentenced to 18 months in jail, she has been released after just five

Appeals court ruled that the original judge 'had taken his eye off the ball'

Judges said the only injury was a 'bruised ear'



Lord Justice Elias said the mother's actions were no worse than those of many caring parents throughout the land

A mother jailed after her children told social workers she smacked them was freed from prison last night.



A judge said her actions were no worse than those of ‘many loving and caring parents throughout the land’.



He criticised the junior judge who had jailed her for 18 months and ordered that she should be released immediately.



The decision at the Appeal Court came after the mother, who cannot be named, admitted ‘excessive chastisement’.



Police discovered she had slapped her sons on three occasions over a seven-year period and also once banged two of their heads together.



One of the children was 15 at the time she slapped him. Only one of the incidents caused physical injury, a bruised ear.



The case highlights the draconian penalties that parents can suffer if they breach strict laws that ban the smacking of children.



Anyone found to have hit their child hard enough to leave a mark can be jailed for up to five years under laws brought in by the last Labour government.



Lord Justice Elias, who sat with Mr Justice Coulson and Mrs Justice Thirlwall, said: ‘An offender must be sentenced only for what she has been found guilty of. This was plainly an unhappy home but she is not being sentenced for being a bad mother or an incapable mother or of being incapable of controlling her children.



'Too harsh': Judges at London's Criminal Appeals Court said the original judge in the case had 'taken his eye off the ball'



‘Only one of these offences caused physical injury. The other incidents are similar to actions taken by many loving and caring parents throughout the land in moments of stress.

‘They may regret it afterwards, but parenting is a difficult skill.

‘It is said that the judge gave insufficient weight to her previous good character and was unjust in saying that she had shown no remorse, because there was evidence she was very upset at the time.’

The Appeal Court judges were told the woman, who is in her 30s and from a town near Cardiff, was jailed in July.

Judge David Wynn Morgan, sitting at Cardiff Crown Court, handed her an 18-month sentence after she admitted four counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16.

She was investigated by police after one of her sons falsely told social services that she attacked him, leaving him with bruises.

The child later admitted this was a lie to get more contact with his estranged father.

'Excessive chastisement': She was given an 18-month sentence at Cardiff Crown Court in July after her children reported her to social services



However, officers discovered that she had slapped her 15-year-old son in the face during an argument in 2010 and also slapped two of her sons in 2003. In a fourth incident the struggling mother also banged the heads of two her sons together after she broke up a fight between them.



Her barrister, Ruth Smith, said she ‘couldn’t cope’ with her children and the only injury which was caused in all of this was a bruised ear on one occasion.



She added that there was ‘clear evidence she had been a victim of domestic violence’ herself and appealed for leniency.



'These actions were similar to those taken by so many caring parents throughout the land. They may regret it afterwards, but parenting is a difficult skill .'

- Lord Justice Elias

Ordering the woman’s release, Lord Justice Elias added that the sentencing judge ‘took his eye off the ball’.

He said: ‘There were occasions when the children had made allegations which had subsequently been disproved.



‘We think that the premise of the sentence imposed by the judge was incorrect. If he had focused on the particular incidents, only one of which caused physical injury while the others may be seen as chastisement going beyond its bounds, a sentence of 18 months was too long.



‘We think the right thing to do now would be to give her a sentence of five months imprisonment that would secure her immediate release.



‘No valuable purpose would be served by keeping her in prison any longer.’



Under a 2004 law introduced by Labour, a smack should cause no more than the reddening of the skin. Senior politicians including Boris Johnson have attacked the current law as ‘confusing’ and said it undermines the role of parents.



Former education minister David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, said he believed the ban contributed to last year’s riots in London and elsewhere through a lack of discipline in the home.



He called for a return to Victorian laws on discipline, saying parents needed to be able to use corporal punishment to control unruly children.



The 2004 law says anyone who causes injury to their children with a smack is guilty of actual bodily harm. But, in 2007, a senior judge said parents should be allowed to slap their children when chastising them.

