July 21, 2010

Assault on child for honking car horn admitted

A 50-year-old Christchurch man has admitted assaulting his seven-year-old son when he made a fuss while waiting in a car parked outside a bottlestore.

Anthony Diamond pleaded guilty to the charge of assault on a child at an appearance before Judge Michael Radford in the Christchurch District Court today.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Tu Maaka said Diamond had made an afternoon visit to the bottlestore with children in the vehicle. While he was inside, the seven-year-old got into the front seat and began repeatedly honking the horn.

Diamond went back outside and was seen to strike the boy three times with a closed fist.

He then went back into the bottlestore but the employee who had witnessed the assault made him go away.

When police did their interviews, the boy said he had been struck four times, but Diamond said he had hit him with an open hand.

Defence counsel Jared Bell said the family was now all back together after Child, Youth, and Family had also done interviews to ascertain the safety of the children.

Judge Michael Radford said he wanted to be sure that it was not routine behaviour – “You go to a bottlestore and the kid plays up, so you give him a hiding.”

But Mr Bell told him Diamond accepted that he had overreacted with inappropriate behaviour. He felt he had exploded when the child misbehaved. There had been some difficult issues with his son. It was not routine behaviour.

Judge Radford said: “Giving way to your feelings of frustration is pretty poor because children don’t see matters in the same way adults do. It is not to be tolerated. If you behaved like this again, something more serious would have to be done.”

He released Diamond on supervision for a year and ordered that he undertake assessment and counselling as directed.