MEDIA RELEASE
1 December 2010

Home Detention for Child Abuse Sends Wrong Message

Family First NZ is shocked that a Cambridge man who severely injured his daughter after shaking her in frustration when she soiled herself avoided jail and received just three months' home detention and 150 hours' community work.

"This outcome sends all the wrong messages about the communities' stand against violence, and sets a dangerous precedent for future cases," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

"There were a number of aggravating factors in this case including the usual risk factor of the offender drinking and smoking drugs, and the shaking to be so severe as to cause severe haemorrhaging to the left side of the child's brain and eye."

"Being told to stay home for three months is insulting to the victim who will most likely have a lifetime consequence from these abusive actions. This sentence minimises the seriousness of what has happened, and sends a dangerous message that we really don't take the serious abuse of children seriously."

Family First has been calling for sentencing for those who abuse and kill our children to be toughened to provide both a deterrent and a clear message of the community's disgust with the actions of people who abuse children www.stoptheabuse.org.nz

"This was a terrible abuse of a child with tragic consequences - yet the consequence for the offender can be described as 'mildly inconvenient'," says Mr McCoskrie.

ENDS

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