Feather duster assault: Man charged after hitting 2-year-old 23 times with feather duster
In a confronting case of domestic violence, a northern beaches father struck his two-year-old daughter 23 times with the handle of a feather duster because she would not eat her dinner.
Manly
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In a shocking case of domestic violence, a northern beaches’ dad struck his two-year-old daughter 23 times with the handle of a feather duster because she would not eat her dinner.
The angry father used physical punishment on the child because it was part of his Asian cultural upbringing, Manly Local Court heard on Tuesday.
As part of the mealtime punishment in their home, the man also made the little girl stand in the corner of the dining room.
But after she soiled her pyjamas 20 minutes later, her dad smacked her bottom 20 times. Both acts of violence were captured by an in-home security camera and shown to the court.
The court was also told the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, slapped his wife once on the face as she tried to protect their daughter from his assaults.
His solicitor described the incidents on May 28 as “ugly”, but told the court the punishment was part of her client’s cultural upbringing and he had been disciplined the same way as a child.
Outside the court the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the Manly Daily he was of Chinese background from Hong Kong.
The solicitor said the father did not intentionally hurt the child, but had wanted to discipline her.
His child was left with a series of angry red welts on her upper left arm from being struck repeatedly with the wooden feather duster handle as she sat at the family’s dining room table.
“Culturally, this is the way Asians discipline children,” the solicitor told Magistrate Michelle Goodwin.
“This is not Asia,” Ms Goodwin said.
Police prosecutor Chris O’Brien said this was an ongoing assault of the child.
“His cultural beliefs are not a defence in this country,” Sgt O’Brien said.
The man has pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault.
His wife fled the family home with the child and two siblings to stay wit relatives. She told police that her husband had a bad temper.
“When he gets angry he can’t control himself,” she said in a video interview with police played in court.
The man applied to the court to have the charges dismissed due to mental illness, but that application was refused by Ms Goodwin.
The court was told that the man had been suffering with stress, anxiety and depression due to a drop in his income after the COVID-19 pandemic affected his business.
Ms Goodwin said the charges were a “serious matter of domestic violence”.
“(There is) no excuse for this type of behaviour in a civilised society,” she said.
Outside court the man told the Manly Daily he regretted his actions and that he had overreacted due to the pressure of running his business and only getting four hours sleep a night.
“I am sorry,” he said. “I was punished like this when I was a child. This was how things were done.”
The man will be sentenced in Manly Local Court on November 3.