By Amanda Gillies
An Auckland father has been sentenced to a three-year prison term for his part in the horrific abuse of his nine-year-old daughter.
The man and his wife are now both in prison for carrying out systematic abuse of the child.
For legal reasons, 3 News cannot show you his face – to protect the identity of his daughter.
“What your daughter needed was a kind and loving environment when she was returned to you. But instead, she was subjected to horrific physical abuse. She was starved and humiliated. The child was entitled to look to you for protection and you failed her,” Judge Brooke Gibson said in sentencing.
The 33-year-old admitted smacking, slapping and kneeing his nine-year-old over several months.
He did nothing when her mother attacked her with a machete, brooms and sticks, tore away her scalp and ripped off her toe nail.
The defence argued the father wasn’t really aware of the abuse, but if he did see the mother beating the daughter he would try to stop it.
The Crown said this was a lie – the father was there for the severe beatings and was once in the room next door playing on an X-Box and did nothing about it.
The court heard the little girl was so terrified, the only time she ever felt safe was when she was away from the house getting medical treatment.
“I was really glad when the police took me to hospital. I felt safe there. While I was in hospital there was someone watching me the whole time. I would wake up and see that someone was sitting there, watching over me. That made me feel safe and I could go back to sleep. It feels good that my mum and dad can’t hurt me anymore,” Crown lawyer Lorraine MacDonald read from the little girl’s statement.
Both parents are now behind bars; the girl’s mother was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years jail late last year.
3 News