Father sentenced after attack on autistic child

Thursday 26 September 2019

A father has been handed a community service order after pushing his autistic child's head against a wall and punching his wife during a household argument.

The man appeared in the Magistrate’s Court for sentencing this week.

The defendant cannot be named due to a legal obligation to protect the identity of the child involved.

Legal Adviser Advocate Carla Carvalho, appearing for the prosecution, told the Court that the family assaults took place earlier this year amid a “tense atmosphere in the home.”

Pictured: The offences took place in a family home.

Advocate Carvalho explained that the man’s child was “kicking the doors upstairs” and wouldn’t stop even when the defendant told him to. At this point, he “pushed the child to the right side of his head” with an “open palm push” and the child’s “face hit the wall".

However, the Legal Adviser confirmed that the child suffered “no injuries”. For this offence – the father was charged with, and admitted, one count of recklessly causing harm to a child.

The man's attack on his wife took place shortly after, as she "began arguing" about how he had treated the child, and was “following the defendant around the house”.

When he tried to go into the kitchen “to get some space”, she pursued him, leading him to push her out of the kitchen with “two hands on her shoulders” and close the door. 

She reopened the door and he proceeded to “push her out of the room again”, causing her to start “clawing at his face with her nails".

Following repeated attempts to push his wife away, the defendant then “grabbed her neck” with one hand and “punched her twice to the face” with the other.

Pictured: The case was heard in the Magistrate's Court.

The woman suffered a cut to her lip and a bruise on her cheek.

Representing the father, Advocate Sarah Dale explained that the assaults had happened at a time when the man was suffering “significant financial problems."

She also spoke of the challenges posed by their child's autism diagnosis, explaining that the couple were still “learning how to deal with the additional demands placed on them,” as a consequence. 

Advocate Dale said her client “has difficulty coping emotionally” when faced with these problems alongside the "deteriorating health" of another family member. It was in this "overwhelmed state" that the father committed the two offences, she said.

She added that her client was "disgusted with himself" about what he had done, and that he has nightmares in which “he replays over and over again in his mind his [child's] face when he realised what he had done".

Remarking upon the “life-changing impact this has had on the family as a whole”, Advocate Dale suggested that the man had "received punishment enough” for the ordeal.

Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris, presiding, warned the man that the offending was serious enough to merit a jail term, but opted instead to impose a community service order.

Describing his crimes as “serious”, the Assistant Magistrate also took into account the father's ‘guilty’ pleas and the fact he had no previous convictions, as well as his remorse.

Handing down a 120-hour community service order, Assistant Magistrate Harris told the man: “I hope you can move forward.”