Adelaide mother Lorien Norman escapes jail after assaulting baby daughter with spoon

An Adelaide mother has avoided a jail term even after pleading guilty to beating her 8-month-old daughter with a spoon. Lorien Norman, 26, apparently even boasted to baby Evie’s father, Shane McMahon, that she would also get custody.

Warning: Disturbing content and photos below. Pictures were taken from McMahon’s Facebook account.

As the court heard, in October 2016, Norman rang 000 and threatened to throw both Evie and herself off the balcony of their flat unit around 4 a.m. When police arrived, they saw Evie’s face had bruises. Both Evie and Norman were taken to the hospital.

When asked by the police, Norman initially lied and told them the baby fell at a play gym a day before. But the paediatrician who treated Evie noted that she sustained the bruises from a physical assault. She had sustained at least eight separate blows to her face and body. Some of the bruises, the doctor concluded, correlated in the size and shape of a spoon seized from Norman’s kitchen, while the others appeared to have had been caused by hits by a hand.

Last week, District Court Judge Jack Costello called Norman’s offending as “far from the most serious of offending of this type.” Norman was facing a maximum of 13 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated causing harm with intent to cause harm.

Nevertheless, Costello noted that Evie did not sustain bony or intracranial injury from the assault and therefore would completely heal. He also considered Norman’s own troubled adolescence and subsequent adult relationships, as well as her diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.

“You are clearly remorseful for your actions,” the judge said in handing out the sentence, adding that a jail sentence was clearly warranted in her case. “Having said that, as I also said, the nature and duration of the offending here renders it less serious than many others.”

As she has pleaded guilty to the charge, Norman’s sentencing had also been reduced by 30 percent. Had she not done that, she would have had received two years and six months’ jail, which would be reduced to one year and nine months. Costello instead gave her a non-parole period of 10 months. It has been suspended upon Norman’s entering into a bond of $500. She also has to be in good behaviour and comply with all the conditions of the bond. She will also be under the supervision of a community corrections officer and has been told to complete any counselling, therapy programs or assessments recommended by the officer.

McMahon, Evie’s father, has shared the pictures of his daughter on social media and said Evie was still suffering mentally from the ordeal. “Physically she’s OK, but mentally, it’s too early to tell,” he told news.com.au. “But she’s well aware of what happened. She doesn’t like things near her face and will put her arms up. How will I have a hair dresser go near her face one day?”

The father was seething not only by the sentencing, but also by Norman’s callous reaction to her having avoided jail. Days following Norman’s sentence, McMahon said he received text messages from her, seemingly taunting him. She also appeared to be demanding for custody of Evie.

“So, I’m not in jail. What’s your next move?” the messages read. “I’ll send you photos in October. Cute Family photos, of myself, Evie, My Sister, Her partner, and my nephew, [name redacted] :) Even with everyone on social media against me; I still made it. And I’ll be having part custody within a year, ” the messages continued.

“I’m disgusted by the outcome,” McMahon told the publication. “I’m not being sexist, but if it was me, I would be in jail. If I did this under the circumstances, I would still be incarcerated. I wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on, and I wouldn’t expect it either.”

Apart from Evie, McMahon also raises India, his second child with Norman.