'I'll slice you up', mum says
A MOTHER trying to protect her teenage daughter from bad influences landed in hot water herself when she threatened to slice up two 14-year-old girls.
Debbie Michelle Hornung was sentenced in Cairns District Court yesterday to 50 hours' community service after pleading guilty to a charge of going armed to cause fear.
The court heard Hornung, 42, waved a broken butcher's knife at the teens threatening to "slice you up" during an argument on Nephrite St, Woree, on February 19, 2008.
The prosecution told the court the action would have been quite frightening for the two teens involved.
Defence barrister Kevin McCreanor said Hornung approached the girls because she was convinced they were a negative influence on her daughter, also 14, causing her to get into trouble with the police.
The teens had been living at Hornung's house for 10 days when she asked them to leave.
Soon after, the mother-of-two was called by the police at Stockland Cairns because all three teens had been caught stealing.
Unable to persuade her daughter to go home with her, the court heard Hornung tried to abate her depression caused by the situation by getting drunk.
It was then she was told by her other daughter, now 23, that the missing teen was on Nephrite St with the girls in a stolen car.
Judge William Everson said the mother "lost the plot" because of the stress.
A conviction was also recorded.
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Community service: A mother trying to protect her teenage daughter from bad influences landed in hot water herself when she threatened to slice up two 14-year-old girls.
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