The tearful testimonial Madelyne Gorman Toogood gave in front of glaring TV cameras after she was caught on surveillance cameras beating her daughter was starkly uncharacteristic of the reclusive, media-shy Irish Travellers culture to which she belongs, experts say.

The Irish mother caught on surveillance cameras beating her four-year-old daughter in a department store car park said today that none of her three children have ever been abused before.

A US mother turned herself in to police to face a child battery charge, eight days after a nationally televised video-tape depicted her shaking, slapping and punching her four-year-old daughter in a store car park.