By Cam Lucadou-Wells
An Endeavour Hills father has been accused of beating his 12-year-old daughter to the point of her vomiting.
The 44-year-old pleaded guilty after accepting a sentence indication at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 5 May.
He was charged with assault and recklessly causing injury for striking his daughter repeatedly with a belt across her neck and shoulders at home on 12 January.
He was also charged with repeatedly threatening to strike his wife with a wooden stake stored in the corner of the master bedroom.
On 12 January, the daughter was cleaning her room when the accused called out for her to turn on the TV for him.
She continued cleaning her room, so her “angered” father dragged her into the living room, a police summary stated.
As she huddled against the wall, the man removed his belt and struck her with it multiple times.
Despite pleas from his wife to stop, he continued until his daughter vomited on the floor.
The next day, a clinic’s doctor treated the daughter’s swollen and bruised neck and shoulders but didn’t seem to perceive an assault.
Remarkably the doctor recorded the injury as a ‘Ry neck’ – presumably a “wry neck” – and recommended “negative energy exercises”.
His consultation notes did not record how the injury occurred. According to police, the victim didn’t tell him the circumstances.
Two months later on 11 March, child protection officers were notified of the man’s behaviour and attended the family home.
The daughter told them about the assault. She was taken to Endeavour Hills Police Station to report the matter.
The next day, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court issued a final intervention order to protect the victims.
On 19 April, the man was arrested. In a police interview he claimed he only threatened to strike his daughter with a belt as a “disciplinary measure”.
According to a police statement, the man exhibited controlling behaviours such as forcing his wife to sleep on the floor.
The wife told police that she’d fled the house many times in fear of her safety.
“Now he threatens to beat me with the stick or beat the children with the stick if we are bad or talk back to him,” she stated to police.
The man denied threatening to strike his wife. He kept the stake for protection against his brothers-in-law, he claimed.
At court on 5 May, the man accepted a sentence indication of a community corrections order with unpaid work and treatment.
The man was willing to relocate back from NSW to Victoria for the CCO, his lawyer Adrienna Kisvarda said.
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell noted the seriousness of the charges. There was much utility in the man’s guilty plea by sparing his daughter from giving evidence at court.
Ms O’Donnell ordered a CCO assessment including parenting, anger management and family-violence programs.
The man will be sentenced at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 19 May.
