A WAGGA teenager who bashed his mother twice because he did not like the food being served up for dinner and attacked her another time after being woken up had treated her worse than an animal, according to the sentencing magistrate.
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Daniel Harries’ assaults were described as cowardly and degrading by magistrate Erin Kennedy when the 18-year-old unemployed man fronted Wagga Local Court for sentencing on Monday.
According to undisputed facts tendered to the court, Harries became angry on September 27 last year when his mother offered him a kebab for dinner.
He put her in headlock, pushed her onto a couch, placed his hands on her neck, repeatedly head-butted her and then slapped and punched her upper arms.
The woman stopped the attack by kicking her son in the groin and managed to stand up, but was pushed over and grazed her elbows on the floor.
Harries then asked his mum to make him nachos before going to his bedroom.
Two days later, Harries flew into a rage when his mother tapped him on the buttocks to wake him up.
He put the woman in another headlock and eventually released her, which allowed her to walk into the lounge room and sit on the couch.
Harries stood on her feet and slapped and punched the trapped woman’s upper arms again. Then he stepped off her feet and repeatedly kicked her shins and knees.
After the attack, the woman fled to her bedroom and called police before Harries smashed the door to the point it fell off its hinges.
On bail for those attacks and the subject of an apprehended violence order, Harries attacked his mother again in her Ashmont home on February 1 when he did not like the taste of his takeaway chicken.
He punched her in the arm, threw a juice popper on the floor that his mother slipped on and then hit her on the back of the head.
His solicitor told Ms Kennedy that Harries was dealing with mental health issues and was sorry for his behaviour.
Ms Kennedy told Harries he should be ashamed of himself and only the fact he was a person of prior good character and addressing his mental health issues saved him from going to prison. She said it was a classic case of domestic violence.
Harries was given a seven-month suspended jail sentence and ordered not to contact his mother by any means for a year.
