Salli-Anne Neyland who choked nine-year-old boy with phone charger cable put on longer non-parole

A mother who boasted about choking a nine-year-old boy with a phone charging cable as well as bashing him with a metal pole has been handed a harsher sentence.

Adelaide woman Salli-Anne Neyland, 32, had her non-parole period more than doubled on Thursday after she was sentenced to a jail term of two years and 21 days in January, for strangling and assaulting the boy, who is not one of her four children.

South Australia’s Court of Appeal heard Neyland had ‘triumphantly’ texted she had  ‘bashed’ the victim ‘with a pole and choked the little c***’ after the shocking incident on January 17.

Neyland called the boy, who in December had been temporarily place under her care, into her bedroom and accused him of recording a video of a young child in a sexual act.

When the boy denied this Neyland wrapped a phone charging cable around his neck and choked him with it three times, only stopping when he made gurgling noises.

Neyland texted a friend about her actions in assaulting the boy, who she accused of filming a child in a sexual act

She also picked up metal pole, which was part of a drying rack, and hit him across the thighs, buttocks and stomach numerous times to express her displeasure at the boy’s denials and did this over a period of several hours.

Neyland later sent a text to a friend claiming the boy was ‘defs’ a ‘pedo’.

‘I bashed him with a pole and choked the little c**t,’ she wrote.

‘Fingers crossed I don’t go to jail.’

A day after her brutal attack Neyland kicked the boy in the face after he made what she deemed an inappropriate comment.

She threatened to ‘literally kill’ him. 

After her arrest Neyland admitted her actions but stuck by the accusations she made against the boy.

Police found no evidence of inappropriate content on the boy’s phone. 

Following her January sentencing South Australia’s Director of Public Prosecutions launched an appeal against the five-month non-parole period saying it was too low.

Prosecutor Michael Foundas argued on Thursday the sentence was already too merciful and this was compounded by the short non-parole period.

In sentencing Neyland to a new non-parole period of 13 months the Court of Appeals said offences had caused the victim significant ongoing harm.

Neyland pleaded guilty to her brutal attack on the boy, which included choking him with a phone charger cable until he made ‘gurgling sounds’

‘It was attended by several serious features including that the complainant was a vulnerable nine-year old child, who, at the time of the offending, was in the respondent’s care and protection without the ability to independently access support or advocate for himself,’ the court ruled, according to Adelaide Advertiser.

‘He also sustained not insignificant physical injuries as a result of the attack and continues to suffer from emotional and psychological trauma and nightmares.

‘Moreover, the offending was not isolated nor confined to a spontaneous incident but involved numerous assaults coupled with threats, over two days, as well as the use of weapons.’

Neyland can apply for release in February 2024.