What the???
A Wellington man who hit his nephew on the head with a sofa cushion has been committed for jury trial, charged with assault on a child.
The assault allegedly took place last New Year’s Eve, following an argument whether the boy’s mother was being too overprotective of her children, she told Wellington District Court today.
Though no injury was found on the boy from the alleged assault with the small decorative cushion and she said did not see the actual attack happen, it was “definitely not” just a pillowfight, she said.
The boy’s mother admitted she had used physical violence to discipline her son in the past.
One assumes that means she used unreasonable force.
During his appeal to the presiding Justices of the Peace to have the case dismissed, Mr Knowsley repeatedly asked whether he was dreaming.
“It is almost bizarre you can hear repeated admissions that the child has been repeatedly hit by his own parents but that this is going to a full jury case. Frankly, it’s preposterous,” he said.
Unfortunately, preposterous seems to be the core of parenting and law these days. This isn’t a Section 59 case – this wasn’t correction, and wasn’t by a parent – but one wonders if Sue Bradford’s “no level of violence is reasonable” rhetoric influenced some decisions here.
After re-confirming his not guilty plea, the alleged attacker was remanded on bail to an address in Wanganui, though his bail conditions stated he was not allowed to drink at all or have any contact with his sister’s family.
He would reappear in Wellington District Court for a full jury trial on September 22.
So it goes to full trial!
What next? Children convincing their parents to have grandma charged for kissing little Johnny on the cheek? Well, why not?
One hopes there’s more to this case (meaning, I don’t want court time wasted), but reading the part I clipped, most likely there’s a lot less as the kid seems to enjoy making up stories.
Something should go here, maybe later. 