Woman admits using electric dog training collar on child A WOMAN who inflicted electric shocks on a young child using a dog training collar during a catalogue of cruelty has been jailed.
Lanna Monaghan saw the device being used and told a pet owner: “If it works on a dog it will work on kids."
A judge was shown photographs of injuries found on the boy and asked if those on his neck were consistent with what appeared to be electrodes on the collar.
Lady Rae was told they were and said: “So it must have been applied on a number of occasions.”
Former soldier Monaghan, 34, also kicked and bit the child, hit him so hard with a wooden spoon that it broke and subjected him to cold showers.
Monaghan admitted to police that she had a temper and could “zone out” and would go “out of control”.
After Monaghan admitted five charges, the judge rejected a defence plea to allow the Army veteran to remain on bail ahead of sentencing because she is pregnant.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lady Rae told Monaghan: “This is an appalling catalogue of charges of physical cruelty, I think that is the only way to describe it, to a toddler over 15 months.”
She told her that she had to call for a background report because she had never served a prison sentence before, but added: “Realistically it would be very difficult to avoid custody in a case such as this. This was a toddler, a defenceless child.”
Monaghan, formerly of Fort William Road, Fort Augustus, admitted five charges of assaulting the boy, who does not live with her, at addresses in the Highlands in 2014 and last year.
She pled guilty to repeatedly fixing a dog collar with an electric shock device attached around his neck and inflicting shocks on him in July last year.
The private hire car employee also admitted forcibly placing him in a shower and turning it on and off while kicking the boy on the body.
Monaghan, who served in the Army for nine years, also pled guilty to biting him on the ear and repeatedly striking him with a wooden spoon.
The abuse ended when the boy was aged three after a concerned woman contacted the authorities.
The woman kept dogs and had an electronic training collar which Monaghan had seen being used. She raised the alarm after a phone call with Monaghan, who referred to shouting at the boy about the "buzzer". The woman realised that Monaghan must have bought a dog collar similar to the one she had seen at her house.
Miss Farquharson said that when police saw the little boy they noted he had injuries to his face.
She said: “When taken to the hospital and medically examined a number of non-accidental injuries were noted. This included multiple bruising on the body and multiple red marks on the neck at a fixed distance from each other.”
Monaghan later told a psychiatric nurse that she got “fired up” and described having continuing “anger issues”.
She went on to tell police: “I am truly sorry for what happened, I can’t believe it happened.”
She claimed the child “pushes my buttons, spitting on me, peeing on the floor and being sick on the floor”.
Defence counsel Duncan McPhie asked for Monaghan’s bail to be continued while reports are prepared ahead of sentencing.
He said she was effectively a first offender and added: “The main reason for continuing bail is she is pregnant.”
Lady Rae remanded Monaghan in custody ahead of a further hearing at the High Court in Glasgow in July.
source:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/1451 ... _on_child/
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