Dad gets "community detention" for assaulting 2-year-old son, 7-year-old daughter, breaching protection order (Nelson, New Zealand)

Well, Dad GRAHAM NGATUERE has surely learned his lesson, hasn't he? Five whole months of community detention for assaulting his two young children. The cruelty of it all!  As for what the breach of the protection order was about, we have no idea. The reporter apparently forgot to tell us. Notice that there is no mention at all of the children's mother in this story. Was there a mother in this home?

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/5779487/Dad-sentenced-for-hitting-young-children

Dad sentenced for hitting young children
Last updated 13:00 13/10/

A Nelson father whacked his two young children after his two-year-old son got tangled up in a fishing net at a friend's house.

Graham Ngatuere, 58, was yesterday sentenced in the Nelson District Court after being found guilty by a Nelson jury on two charges of assaulting a child and one charge of breaching a protection order.

In April last year, Ngatuere was at a friend's house with four of his children when his two-year-old son tripped and got caught in a fishing net.

Ngatuere yelled at him and picked him up and then hit him between the hips and ribs with some force with his open hand. This caused the boy to fall.

The boy's seven-year-old sister went to comfort him and Ngatuere hit her on the side of the face with his hand.

Judge Chris Tuohy said friends of Ngatuere were so upset at what happened they called police.

Judge Tuohy said Ngatuere's reaction showed an instinctive reaction to express anger to family members in a physical way.

"In this case it was towards the most vulnerable family members, little children."

Judge Tuohy sentenced Ngatuere to five months' community detention.