January 27, 2013

Jury to consider step-father's parenting conduct

By David Clarkson

A Christchurch jury will be asked to decide whether an Afrikaaner man?s approach to parenting of his teenage step-daughter amounted to criminal conduct.

The Crown alleges that his conduct ? including belittling the girl, bullying, and excessive discipline ? amounted to child cruelty over several years after the family moved to New Zealand.

But the defence says his behaviour was a response to extreme behaviour by a teenager who was acting out.

Crown prosecutor Pip Currie told the trial that the man continued with his behaviour even after he was warned that it was causing the girl, then aged 14, to self-harm by cutting herself. ?

She said: ?Over a number of years, the accused ill-treated his young step-daughter by mental and psychological abuse to such an extent that she would self-harm and contemplate taking her own life.?

The girl is now aged 15 and is back in South Africa living with her father. She gave evidence at the trial by audio-visual link from Johannesburg in the early hours of the morning, local time.

The trial before Judge Paul Kellar and a Christchurch District Court jury, is expected to last four days. The man, a 38-year-old contractor, denies three child cruelty charges, and two charges of assault with intent to injure over an incident in which the girl says she was choked. The Crown will call evidence from 11 witnesses.

The man married the girl?s mother in South Africa, when the girl was aged nine. The family moved to New Zealand in November 2008, living at first in Invercargill and then in Christchurch. The couple had another baby who was aged nine months at the time they came to New Zealand.

Mrs Currie said the problems between the man and his step-daughter escalated to where they amounted to criminal behaviour. She described dominating conduct, excessive discipline, belittling and bullying, and favouring his own daughter. The Crown says it amounted to behaviour likely to cause unnecessary suffering, injury to health,or mental disorder or disability.

It was accepted that there would be family arguments or discipline issues. ?This is not a case of a wayward young girl who was being strongly disciplined y her step-dad. The Crown is alleging this was far in excess of normal healthy parental oversight,? Mrs Currie said.

?The accused continued with this type of behaviour even after he was advised by a medical expert that how he was treating this girl was causing or contributing to her self-harm.?

Defence counsel Denise Johnston asked the jury to keep an open mind as it heard the evidence. The defence would call evidence itself.

She asked them to consider the dynamics in the family, and who the man was trying to protect?when there was chaos and acting out in the family and extreme behaviour by the girl. ?Once it was learnt that she was cutting (herself), her behaviour was really out of control and this family was trying to cope with it.?

She said the man struggled with the changes from his move to New Zealand, after he sold his properties and his business. He was an Afrikaaner, who was more conservative, while the girl?s mother was from an English South African background, and was more liberal.

She said the jury would have to decide whether the events happened, and whether they amounted to ill-treatment.

She said that at the time of the alleged choking incident, the man had been defending himself from his step-daughter who was holding a knife and threatening him. ?You need to assess his actions in the light of that threat,? she said.

The trial is continuing.