A lawyer is calling for a wider scope for dealing with offenders with mental health problems after a defendant howled through sentencing on Wednesday.
Anita Dorothy Cumming was jailed for a year for abusing her mother.
During the hearing in the Dunedin District Court she repeatedly screamed and eventually had to be removed to a side room.
Her lawyer, Marie Taylor-Cyphers, says there should be options other than jail for a defendant such as Cumming.
"It's a general problem that I'm experiencing with a number of people traversing through our criminal justice system who have mental health issues, now in our justice system at the moment we have a very high threshold for dealing with these people," Ms Taylor-Ciphers tells Corin Dann.
