Glen Waverley man ‘misread situation’ when he punched daughter’s suspected boyfriend

A Glen Waverley father has flown into a rage after seeing his daughter with a boy at a shopping centre in Melbourne’s east. But, after punching the teenager in the face, the dad realised he ‘‘misread the situation”.

Nawal Moudgil’s daughter was getting her nails done at Brandon Park when he saw her and her male friend together and confronted the pair.

An overprotective father attacked who he thought was his daughter’s boyfriend at a Wheelers Hill’s shopping centre but later admitted he “misread the situation”.

Nawal Moudgil, of Glen Waverley, fronted Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on March 3 where he was convicted and fined $800 following the unprovoked attack on April 5 last year.

Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Julie Lowe told the court Moudgil’s teenage daughter visited the Brandon Park Shopping Centre with the boy about 4pm because she wanted to get her nails done.

The pair were sitting together in a nail salon when Moudgil saw them, causing him to fly into a rage, Leading Sen-Constable Lowe told the court.

Moudgil stormed into the salon and seized the boy by the scruff of the neck before punching him in the face, she told the court.

The boy suffered a cut to his lip as a result of the unprovoked attack and reported the incident to police, she said.

Moudgil’s defence lawyer told the court the teenagers were high school friends but weren’t dating and the assault occurred because his client “misread the situation”.

Moudgil was worried when he saw the pair because he believed his daughter should have been focusing on her studies and the boy was a bad influence, Moudgil’s lawyer told the court.

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“My client was very concerned about his daughter’s future, she wants to go into medicine, she was studying VCE Year 11, she’s now studying VCE Year 12. The victim doesn’t have the same academic goals as his daughter,” Moudgil’s lawyer told the court.

“It’s well out of the realm of normal behaviour and my client accepts that. Since then my client’s taken significant steps to address his behaviour … he’s done this so he doesn’t misread the situation between his daughter and her friend again.”

In sentencing Moudgil, Magistrate Mary-Anne MacCallum also ordered he adhere to a one-year good behaviour bond and undertake a men’s behaviour change program.