Father who repeatedly beat seven-year-old on her leg with stick placed on bond

A father who beat his seven-year-old daughter repeatedly with a stick on her legs has been bonded for a year.

The man, a resident of Largo Height, stood in the dock on Monday, while his daughter and her mother faced him in the witness box on the opposing side.

After the father admitted his guilt to the offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, the court heard what was said to have occurred on the afternoon of December 15, when the incident took place.

Prosecutor Corlene Samuel read that the defendant operates a food snackette, and was doing so at around 1:30 p.m. on the said day. His daughter had begun playing with a lighter, which she apparently used to set a piece of paper ablaze.

The father then became angry after seeing this, and took up a piece of stick, which he used to beat his daughter on her legs. When the stick broke, he retrieved another stick, and continued to beat his daughter on her legs. He also used his hands to beat her about her body.

The father paused, went outside for a while, and then apparently returned and continued to beat his daughter.

He was told by an observing passerby to stop, but apparently this passerby was cursed at. In the end, the defendant was stopped by a police officer.

Shortly after the policeman came, the mother arrived, and met her daughter crying. The mother was told by her daughter what had happened and wheals were observed on the girl’s legs, as well as swelling. The child was taken to a doctor, and the following day, December 16, the police were said to have detained the defendant.

Addressing the court, the father said, among other things, that he could not understand how his daughter could be thinking to play with fire at her age, and mentioned about the booth catching fire, and that he was not rich.

“When I collected her she wasn’t walking properly,” said the child’s mother when it was her turn to speak, adding that her daughter still has marks on her skin.

The mother became emotional as she spoke about this, and said that the child is still limping.

She also mentioned that girl’s father smokes, and that is why the child must have had the lighter.

The defendant likewise argued that the child, who lives with her mother, was in an environment where there was a lot of drinking and smoking.

Nevertheless, when the mother was asked whether or not compensation should be ordered, she said at one point that she didn’t want the father’s money, and that perhaps he could buy groceries instead. She also complained that he does not maintain the child.

The magistrate said he was not going to send the defendant to prison, and neither was he going to fine the defendant. “You appear not to want compensation,” he continued, addressing the mother, and indicated that he was going to impose a bond for a year in the sum of $2000, which if breached would mean payment of this sum forthwith, save the spending of four months in jail.