Violent mother?

From Page 2 of the Evening Standard, July 19 1996 (a Palmerston North paper):

Woman assaulted police

Court reporter

Judge Barry Lovegrove told a diminutive defendant he had expected someone "seven-foot-four and 18-stone" to appear in the dock of Palmerston North District Court yesterday on charges of assaulting four police officers.

Ana Odette Temple, 19, solo mother, encountered a police patrol after she abused staff and customers of a city hotel.

Temple became more agitated with the arrival of the police, whom she abused, threatened and pushed.

After being arrested, Temple inflicted kicks, scratches and a bite on the four officers.

Judge Lovegrove said Temple's record showed she had a propensity to go "loundly berserk".

He sentenced her to four months periodic detention and a year's supervision.

1. If a "diminutive" woman is charged for an assault on four police officers, would the police be as willing to charge a woman for a similar assault on a male partner?
2. The Domestic Violence Act came into force on the 1st of July this year. Why does a mother with a record such as this still have custody of her child/children?

Stuart Birks

23 July, 1996