Man in Spilsby hit son on face so hard marks showed for days

A Spilsby man who hit his eight-year-old son across the face leaving red marks for several days has been placed on a community order with rehabilitation.
News from the courts ANL-171019-151707001News from the courts ANL-171019-151707001
News from the courts ANL-171019-151707001

The 34-year-old, who cannot be named as this would identify the child who is protected, admitted assaulting the child on October 5 last year, when he appeared at Boston Magistrates Court.

Dan Petryka, prosecuting, said the boy was brushing his hair but his father was annoyed with him because he was not paying attention to what he was telling him, and told him to stand in the corner and hit him across the face several times with his open hand, which left a red mark for several days.

Interviewed four days later, he told police he had not used physical chastisement but that they had been playing chase and the boy had fallen over and hurt his face.

Mitigating, Beris Brickles said the defendant was married with two children and that his partner was the full time earner whilst he was at home with the children.

He said this had been a ‘period of chastisement that had gone too far’.

He said he had hit him three times with the palm of his hand but was not honest with the police although less than 24 hours later he contacted them to say he wanted to be re-interviewed and admitted he had lied because of ‘fear, shame and embarrassment’.

He said Social Services excluded him from the home and that he had been on courses to improve hisparenting and had been allowed to return home six weeks ago.

He said the father suffered from OCD and anxiety which had caused him to behave in this way but he had been downgraded to a low risk by Social Services.

He was given a 12 month community order with 20 days of rehabilitation activity and ordered to pay £170 in costs and charges.