A MOTHER forced her son to restrain her daughter so that she could be beaten, a court heard.

The Darlington woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – attacked her nine-year-old daughter because she stayed out too late.

The child was held down by her brother as she was repeatedly hit by the woman, who had become concerned that her daughter was becoming mixed up with a bad crowd.

Blair Martin, prosecuting at Darlington Magistrates Court, said: “In an interview, the child said her mother had assaulted her because she had not come in when told.

“She had gone upstairs, followed by her mother who asked her brother to get hold of her, then she repeatedly struck her around the shoulders.”

The attack was reported to police by a teaching assistant at the girl’s school.

The girl had told the assistant that the bruises from the attack came after she fell down stairs but later confessed that it had been her mother who attacked her and said she had lied because she was scared.

The woman – who has four previous convictions for violent offences – initially told police officers that the bruises were a result of her child playing with a group of older children but later admitted hitting her.

Stephen Andrews, mitigating, said: “This is a tragedy for the child who had to complain of such an incident to police and it is a tragedy that the defendant is in this situation as a result of over-chastising, which is how she viewed it.

“She has ended up in a court of law with a conviction for assaulting her own child and she is thoroughly ashamed of her actions.

“She knew she had gone over the top but did not know how else to deal with the situation.

“She was concerned about situations of risk that her daughter was putting herself into and did not have the wherewithal to deal with it in an appropriate manner.”

The woman, in her late twenties, pleaded guilty to one count of assault by beating and was handed a 12 month community order with supervision and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £60.