A woman who randomly attacked a toddler in a packed shopping centre and an elderly woman on a bus in ‘heinous’ separate incidents could be freed within months.
Pamela-Raye Jetta, 21, was sentenced to 18 months jail in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Jetta punched ‘forcefully struck’ a two-year-old girl while in her mum’s arms at Hawaiin’s Park Centre in East Victoria Park on October 24 last year before fleeing the scene.
The little girl suffered facial injuries during the attack, which the magistrate described as disturbing.
The shocking incident was captured on CCTV and sparked a city-wide manhunt.
Jetta was later arrested in a nearby suburb and charged with aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm.
The court heard that Jetta had also randomly punched an 80-year-old woman in the face while sitting next to her on a bus in South Perth four months earlier.
Neither of Jetta’s victims were known to her.
Pamela-Raye Jetta, 21 has been sentenced after she pleaded guilty to attacking a two-year-old girl in a shopping mall in October 2024
The court also heard that Jetta (pictured) randomly attacked a 80-year-old woman on a bus four months earlier
Jetta has remained in custody since October.
Her lawyer Clare Brennan told the court Jetta had come from a troubled childhood, WA Today reported.
‘She has had a tragic life with those people who were supposed to have loved and cared for her,’ Ms Brennan said.
‘She has a long history with child protection that began when she was two years old. She has spent her life as a child in care and been exposed to violence.’
The court also heard Jetta had been ‘intravenously’ using meth since she was 12 and had been diagnosed with low intellectual functioning as a result.
At the time of the attacks, Jetta had been under a guardianship order and was receiving NDIS support.
Ms Brennan conceded that her client’s actions had been ‘unacceptable’, regardless of Jetta’s troubled past.
Magistrate Gavin Maclean described both incidents ‘separately heinous’ but agreed to take Jetta’s troubled background into consideration when sentencing.
Jetta was arrested in the nearby suburb of Mirrabooka in Perth’s northern suburbs shortly after the attack on the toddler
‘They are separately heinous in their own terms and the combination of both paints something of a horrendous depiction of violence against people who at opposite ends of the age bracket, each of which has their own vulnerabilities,’ he told the court.
‘[It is] a challenging factor to be considered in this sentencing exercise… [and] demonstrates a blanket failure of people who should have been providing for you and looking after you.’
Jetta told the court that she was deeply traumatised and remorseful about the attacks.
She received a 12 month sentence for the attack on the toddler and another six months for the assault on the elderly woman.
Her sentencing was backdated to October and will be eligible for parole in July.
