Dubai: A mother denied harming her 7-year-old son with a hot spoon while her lawyer defended her yesterday saying she intended only to discipline the boy.

"Not guilty," argued the 31-year-old Emirati mother before the Dubai Appeals Court, rejecting the charge of assaulting her own son.

Her lawyer Mohammad Al Reda contended before Presiding Judge Adnan Al Farra: "My client did not have any intention to hurt or assault her son… she was only disciplining him and her intention was to educate him and warn him against repeating the unacceptable mistake he did."

The Dubai Misdemeanours Court earlier fined the mother Dh3,000 after the jury found her guilty of assaulting her son [born to her ex-husband whom she had divorced and who reported the assault to the police]. The court also referred the civil claim for Dh21,000 in temporary compensation, lodged by the boy's father, to the Dubai Civil Court.

The mother appealed the primary judgment and pleaded innocent when she appeared before Presiding Judge Al Farra yesterday.

Al Reda said that since this case started his client admitted that she put a hot spoon to the boy's backside to reprimand him. "She played her role as a mum who was disciplining her son and she did not have any criminal intention.

"The primary judgment sheet said my client heated a knife" and put it to the boy's bottom inflicting on him a second degree burn. "That's baseless and the court documents proved that she used a spoon," Al Reda said.

He contended before the four-judge jury that the suspect was doing her duty and disciplining her son and she "didn't assault him".

"My client did what she did to reprimand her son … because he undressed in front of his schoolmates in the school's washroom. She wanted to teach him not to repeat such indecent behaviour in order not to fall into any future mistakes," Al Reda said.

The advocate also asked Presiding Judge Al Farra to overturn the primary judgment and pronounce the innocence of his client.

According to records, the boy testified before law enforcement officers that his mother burnt his butt "very mildly" with a hot spoon.

What is your definition of acceptable corporal punishment? Is it an effective way to discipline a child?