A Tasmanian mother who held her terrified son over a burning fireplace and beat him with a belt has walked free from court with a suspended sentence.
Jade Johnson, 32, pleaded guilty to criminal assault over the September 2024 incident involving her 12-year-old son at their Queenstown home.
She was sentenced to 12 months’ in prison, fully suspended for two years.
The court heard the assault began after Johnson was told her son had shown a friend a scary video. When the boy denied it, she became “very upset”.
She and the boy’s father then threw water at him as he tried to sleep, before the father “smacked him on the bottom” with a shoe.
“Whilst this might be considered by some to be within the realm of reasonable discipline, what you did, thereafter, was entirely unjustifiable and clearly criminal in nature,” Justice Tamara Jago said.
Johnson went on to strike her son with a belt, then held him over the lit fireplace while covering his mouth to muffle his screams.
She dropped him onto the metal fireplace barrier before stomping on his back with boots, then kicking and slapping him.
The boy fled the house around 10:30pm, running to the local police station in his pyjamas. A passer-by found him crying and bleeding from the nose.
He was treated in hospital for five abrasions on his back and severe bruising covering most of his right buttock.
In a police interview, Johnson admitted to the assault.
She told officers “everything got a bit blurry” because she was agitated and that she had projected “absolute hate and rage” towards her son.
Justice Jago told Johnson the vulnerable child was “entitled to your love, care and respect”.
“Instead, you assaulted him in a manner which caused him not only physical pain and harm, but undoubtedly caused him upset, stress and anxiety,” she said.
“Your anger was out of control and in those circumstances the potential for you to cause serious harm to [your son] was real.”
The judge acknowledged Johnson’s progress since the attack, noting she had completed parenting courses, attended regular psychological counselling and begun medication for personality disorder traits.
Her son was removed from her care for two months but has since been returned.
“I accept this incident has been a turning point for you,” Justice Jago said. She found the risk of reoffending was “slight”.
Johnson, now pregnant with her sixth child, will face activation of her sentence if she commits any offence punishable by imprisonment within the next two years.
Family and domestic violence support:
1800 Respect national helpline:
1800 737 732
Women’s Crisis Line:
1800 811 811
Men’s Referral Service:
1300 766 491
Lifeline (24 hour crisis line):
131 114
Tas Family Violence Counselling and Support Service:
1800 608 122
