A mother of two was dragged to the Kingston and St Andrew Parish court on Tuesday after she was charged for using an electric wire to beat her 14-year-old daughter.

Camille Salmon pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and cruelty to a child when she stood before Senior Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague.

The Crown told the judge that while reprimanding the child on March 30, Salmon used an electric wire to beat her “all over her body”, causing cuts and bruises.

However, the Crown did not disclose who reported the incident, which landed the woman in court.

After hearing the allegation, the judge said, “I can understand why you were charged with cruelty.”

Explaining her action, the woman said she doesn’t normally hit her children.

“I’m a single mother of two, Your Honour. I work very hard…It has come to my knowledge that she is interested in other things that is not childish. She don’t listen… It hurt me as a mother that I see my 14-year-old texting her friend disgusting things that she wants to do,” Salmon said, adding that she knows she was wrongmand even issued an apology to her daughter.

In response, Cole-Montague said, “Mother, one thing I know for a fact, is that perhaps one of the hardest jobs on God’s green earth these days is to parent a child and to parent a teenager… especially because they are exposed to so much.”

She continued: “Some of things we learnt about when we were 18, 20, you’re hearing 11-year-old, 10-year-old and if you go to some of the basic schools you [would be] frightened to hear what they are talking about. But there is a place that as a parent you must not cross. That’s why I allowed you to talk, you know, because anytime a judge is supposed to sentence, I think judges must try to appreciate why a person acted in the way that they acted,” she continued.

Turning to the teenager, who was accompanied by her grandmother to court, the judge asked her to remove her mask.

“Such a pretty little thing,” Cole-Montague said after seeing her face. “I want you to do well and I don’t want you to be distracted.”

The judge went on to ask, “Talk to aunty judge. You think you have been good all the time?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Not even Aunty judge good all the time,” Cole-Montague said in a motherly tone.

Responding, the child said she only “Sometimes sent the texts.”

A social inquiry report was requested for Salmon before she is to be sentenced. Sentencing is expected to be done on May 25.

“Little one, be good for me and be good for yourself,” the judge said.