A suburban mother found guilty of hitting a little boy with her head on the sink and then swearing at him wants to work with children at her job at Medibank.
Mamta Dogra, 47, was convicted this week of four counts of assault, including assault causing actual bodily harm to a young boy.
Sydney’s Downing Center Local Court heard Dogra transferred her consultancy job at Medibank from NSW to South Australia last year.
But Magistrate Glenn Bartley was asked not to punish Dogra with a conviction because she would no longer be able to complete the check for working with children and could lose her job.
Mamta Dogra requested that assault convictions not be registered against her as it could prevent her from getting a check for working with children at Medibank in Adelaide
Adelaide lawyer Damien O’Dea told the court he was asking for a good behavior bond for Dogra, who works three days a week and “resisted conviction”.
“My client currently works for Medibank,” Mr O’Dea said.
He said she wanted to move out of New South Wales and take her work to another state.
“She was recently asked to complete an offender history survey with the police, including a check on working with children,” he said.
‘If a conviction is pronounced and recorded, this automatically means that she can no longer work for Medibank.
‘When Medibank customers came in, she… was occasionally in the presence of children assisting customers.’
He said Dogra needs the job “for her mental health and to survive” but also said “she will eventually get equity” from property sales in NSW.
After Mr Bartley told him there was ‘not a shred of evidence’ to support his claim that convictions would ‘seriously prejudice’ Dogra in this respect, the lawyer produced a letter which he handed to the court.
The magistrate noted that although there was no date on the letter, he was prepared to accept it, but it only indicated that Medibank required criminal record checks.
‘Many employers decide on the merits. The outcome is completely unknown. I am not satisfied about the likelihood of her losing her job,” Mr Bartley said.
“Convictions are inevitable anyway.”
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Medibank about Dogra’s employment, requirements for working with children and police background checks.
Mr Bartley described Mr O’Dea’s argument that Dogra should avoid conviction as “out of touch with reality” and “so overwhelmingly indisputable”.
Dogra, 47, moved from Medibank in NSW to South Australia and works as a consultant three days a week, including guiding clients around children
The 47-year-old was convicted of four assaults, including slamming a six-year-old boy’s head into the bathroom sink before telling him to ‘shut up’ and refusing to call an ambulance.
“I reject that,” Mr Bartley said. “She smashed the six-year-old boy’s head against a hard sink, rupturing his head.”
He also rejected Dogra’s suggestion that witnesses who testified to the attack should not be believed because “children… are easily influenced.”
Mr Bartley had previously shot Dogra after Mr O’Dea attempted to plead for leniency at the Downing Center Local Court hearing on the grounds of her ‘loving’ and ‘kind’ attitude.
The lawyer had cited glowing references calling her “wonderful” and “generous” and assured the court that “the community can feel safe” that they were not at risk from her.
“Bashing the boy’s head against a hard sink hardly fits that (description),” Mr Bartley said.
According to Mr Bartley’s judgment when he found Dogra guilty of assault, witnesses described how she had left the primary school-age boy ‘screaming and crying’ with ‘blood dripping down his face’ during a 2018 incident.
The document, read by Daily Mail Australia, states Dogra then told the boy to “shut up” and refused to call an ambulance.
The boy, who was attacked in a suburban Sydney home and suffered a laceration to his forehead that required stitches, was told to pretend he had hurt himself rather than be punched by Dograhit.
Mr O’Dea said: ‘Your Honor, in your judgment she has fabricated evidence… she has attempted to fabricate events in order to respond to witnesses.’
“My client deserves all the credit,” he argued.
Mr Bartley replied: ‘How? I found her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
“I found that beyond a reasonable doubt…she scratched people and pushed (the boy) against a hard object. I didn’t really accept her as a source of great truth.
“Young children cannot protect themselves from the actions of adults… where that protective trust is abused.”
The magistrate also rejected Dogra’s arguments that “money was tight” as she was represented by three different lawyers at one point.
“This case has been going on for a long time…on and on and on,” he said.
The magistrate imposed a three-year community corrections order on her and fined her a total of $17,500.