Catherine Desley Maire Hodder pleads guilty in Geraldton Magistrates Court to assaulting 12-year-old daughter

A Geraldton woman has admitted assaulting her 12-year-old daughter by repeatedly slapping her and hitting her with a broom — the third time she has been convicted of abusing one of her children. Catherine Desley Maire Hodder appeared in Geraldton Magistrates Court on Monday, pleading guilty to two counts of common assault in circumstances of aggravation. Police prosecutor Sgt Ross Gray told the court on the morning of December 6 last year, the 31-year-old Wonthella mother grabbed her eldest daughter by the hair and slapped her several times while yelling and swearing at her. Later that morning she hit the victim on the leg with a metal broom pole as she swung it around her living room, he said. The woman’s six-year-old daughter saw both incidents. Sgt Gray said the victim and the six-year-old were play-fighting on the victim’s bed, which Hodder said she confused for real fighting, having heard the six-year-old screaming and being slapped, which she said was the reason why she hit her older daughter. In regards to the incident with the metal pole, Hodder said she “only wanted to scare” the victim by swinging it around in anger, and that hitting her was an accident. The victim went to school after the incidents, and Hodder was arrested later that day. In February last year, Hodder was found guilty of assaulting the same child, and was placed on a community-based order which she completed in October. In 2018, she was found guilty of assaulting another child of hers, and was placed on an intensive supervision order. Hodder’s lawyer Fintan Roberts said Hodder needed help managing her situation as she was effectively a single, pregnant mother of four children, and recommended a community-based order. However, Magistrate Angus Hockton said the situation — given Hodder’s history of assaulting her children — was too serious and the consequences needed to be escalated. A pre-sentence review will be carried out and Hodder, released on bail, will be sentenced on March 20.