A 43-YEAR-old woman has been handed a suspended jail sentence after hitting her 12-year-old daughter with a roll of wallpaper and scratching her face.

The girl suffered swelling and bruising to her arm during the first attack at their home in Keighley.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, had called her daughter a "thick head" for being slow to pick up a pair of scissors - when the daughter answered her back, calling her the same name, the defendant struck.

The second assault on the girl, who is currently in foster care with her sibling, left a scar across her left cheek and scratched her eye.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that both attacks took place in January of last year.

Carolyn Wigin, prosecuting, said: "When the police attended they found the child to have injuries.

"She had swelling and soreness of her arm caused by being hit by the wallpaper roll. She had been slow to get a pair of scissors and her mother had called her a 'thick head'.

"The mother said 'I can do what I want, she is my daughter.'"

The court heard the woman's career was now over.

Stephen Wood, mitigating, said: "She made a positive contribution to a lot of people's lives."

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told the defendant: "You are somebody who must have quite a short fuse.

"Your reaction has been a violent one. That was certainly the situation here."

He added: "There are many good things that people have said about you."