CAUTION - DISTURBING CONTENT: The following is an abridged victim impact statement from the 8-year-old brother of a girl whose mother was today sentenced to seven and a-half years in prison on 25 charges, including assaulting her daughter with a machete and hammer and kicking her while wearing steel-capped boots.
This is how I feel about what my Mum and Dad did to me and my sister
I was hurt for a long time so I think they should stay where they are for a long time too. My Mum was the worst one. [My sister] and I were hurt for a long time so they should stay away for a long time.
I don't know why I got hit so much but I think it was because I wasn't good enough and I didn't listen good enough. It was the same for my sister. Both of us didn't listen properly so we got hit.
[My sister] and I had to sit outside for one night on the step and we talked about how to stop the hitting. [My sister] said that if we listened properly, the hitting would stop so we tried to listen but we still got hit.
If I am naughty when I'm with my caregiver now, she growls at me or sometimes sends me to my room. She never hits me so I don't mind being growled at by her.
When I was getting hit I felt really scared and my head would ache.
I would have to watch [my sister] getting hit some of the time and so would [my brother and my little sister]. They would also sometimes see me being hit and I would be scared that they would be next.
[My sister] always got to get hit much more than me. It made me feel sad when she got hit.
I was sad for me and sad for my sister.
I was scared for me and scared for both my sisters and my little brother.
I was scared to tell anyone because I was worried that they would tell on me and I would get more of a hiding. I did tell one of time at school, I told some friends and they told the teacher.
When Mum found out she was cross with me for telling and I got hurt again.
After that, if I had bruises, I didn't get to go to school.
Sometimes my legs were bruised from being hit. I wouldn't be able to walk properly for two days. The bruises on my legs have all gone now and the ones on my arms have all gone too.
I have a scar on my leg from being whacked.
If I screamed when I was being hit, I would get another one and another one until I stopped screaming.
One time I had a bloody mouth from being hit and I had to spit it out as the blood was going down my throat.
[My sister] and I were not allowed out of the house except to take the rubbish out and go to school. Other than that we had to stay inside and do the cleaning. If we were caught outside we got into trouble.
Even now I don't like being outside because I think I am going to get into trouble. It's scary being outside.
Taking the rubbish out was scary too as it was dark and if I didn't take it, Mum would get really angry with us. One time [my sister] got cut on the hand by Mum because she didn't take the rubbish out. I was so scared that I would get cut too.
