Sydney mum convicted of domestic violence for slapping daughter

A mum who hit her five-year-old daughter repeatedly and forced her to stand outside a Sydney restaurant because she refused to eat has been convicted of domestic violence.

The 40-year-old mother wept in her husband's arms at Newtown Local Court yesterday after pleading guilty to the attack which occurred in July, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The woman, who cannot be identified, lashed out at the child and made her stand outside the family's Korean restaurant because she was reportedly more interested in her ballet costume than eating her lunch.

The matter came to the attention of police when a witness photographed and filmed the mother slapping and shaking the distraught child.

When police arrived the five-year-old told them "Mummy hurt me, mummy hit my belly, with her hand, because I wouldn't eat my food."

The mother's lawyer, Athena Touriki, argued that the way her client disciplined her daughter was typical of South Korea and the mother had been on the receiving end of such treatment herself as a child.

However, Magistrate Robert Williams rejected the lawyer's request for the guilty plea to be accepted without recording a conviction, saying the attack could not "be justified in anyway in terms of cultural discipline".

"The discipline was a vicious assault. You can say it's cultural discipline. I don't agree," he said.

The woman was fined $1200, sentenced to an 18-month good behaviour bond and ordered to attend parenting and stress management classes.