Influencer mum sentenced after she forced her daughter, aged 3, to take ice baths to stop her tantrums

The actions of mum Joana Mascarenhas were discovered when she posted a video to her social media about what she had done. In the viral 2023 clip, the Portuguese influencer said that she had immersed her toddler daughter, Julieta, in cold water to stop her bad behaviour.

The 34-year-old spoke about two specific occasions when she used cold water to calm down her young child. She admitted she had submerged her three-year-old daughter in a cold pool of water up to her neck. She went on to say she had placed the little one in a bathtub while still wearing her pyjamas and showered her in cold water. She explained her reasoning, saying: "It is the most effective way to calm her down."

She wrote at the time on her Instagram account: “I took her, my pajamas and went into the bathtub. I wet it all with cold water. It was a super holy medicine.”

The judge sitting in the Lisbon Local Criminal Court said that her methods did not constitute an "adequate form of care" and, although effective, this was only because her daughter was "scared".

The judge stated that if the actions were carried out among adults, they would be "humiliating" to the other party. Mascarenhas' lawyer said in her defence she made an "unfortunate decision", but argued it was not one that should be considered a crime because it did not cause any physical or psychological harm to the girl.

Mascarenhas was given a suspended sentence of two-and-a-half years for domestic violence. She will also have to pay her daughter £830 (€1,000) in compensation for "humiliating" her. She was handed a suspended sentence as she had never committed a criminal offence before, as reported by NeedToKnow. After leaving court, Mascarenhas announced her intention to appeal the verdict.

According to local outlet Expresso, Mascarenhas’ video caused outrage among viewers. After it went viral, she deleted all of her social media platforms. The outlet added Portugal's National Commission for the Promotion of the Rights and Protection of Children and Young People will soon comment on the case.

In another video uploaded at around the same time as her video went viral, Mascarenhas caused further concern by telling her social media fans she said she enrolled her daughter in ballet to "train her more feminine side".