Truancy mother wins jail appeal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/tyne/7248411.stm

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A mother jailed for six weeks for letting her daughter skip school, has been freed after serving three days.

Ann Watson, 40, was sent to prison last week for allowing her 13-year-old daughter to miss lessons at Mortimer Community College in South Shields.

Attendance records revealed the youngster had turned up to school just once in the past nine months.

An appeal judge said magistrates had not taken account of other welfare issues at the family's Jarrow home.

Watson, of Sandiacres, Jarrow, was jailed by South Tyneside magistrates last Tuesday, after an action brought by South Tyneside Council.

'Terrifying experience'

She had pleaded guilty to three aggravated offences of knowing her child was not at school without reasonable justification.

But on Friday a court of appeal sitting at Newcastle Crown Court quashed her jail sentence and gave her a six-month conditional discharge and a 12 month parenting order.

Defence barrister Anthony Hawks told the court Watson had been in jail for three days and had found it "a humiliating and terrifying experience."

Freeing her, Judge Tony Lancaster said: "In our view it seems that the magistrates failed to take a realistic view of the problem here and have not sufficiently or properly regarded welfare issues concerning your daughter.

"There is no doubt that as a parent you can be criticised for failing education for your daughter.

"But you are a woman who has had difficulty coping with circumstances where there has been a violent partner."