A lobby group has slammed the courts for only over the
16-month jail sentence handed down to a young man who caused
life threatening injuries to his three month old baby.
Taupo District Court was told yesterday that forestry worker
Chevy Benjamin Leeward Cashell threw the child from chest
height about one metre across his living room in August 2009.
The court was told that the child was unresponsive on arrival
at Taupo Hospital and was transferred to Waikato Hospital by
helicopter for urgent treatment.
Had it not been for the quick actions of the medical staff
the child would have died, Judge James Weir said.
Family First NZ today described the 16-month sentence was
"pathetic" and sent a dangerous message to potential child
abusers.
"That is pathetic and shows no value for the wellbeing of the
child or the community's disgust with abhorrent child abuse
like this," the lobby group's national director Bob McCoskrie
said.
"Aggravating circumstances were that the man made no attempt
to resuscitate the child, abandoned the child, and according
to the judge had 'limited insight into the seriousness of his
offending and displayed a troubling lack of perception
regarding the seriousness of his offence'," he said
"This judgement shows that we are yet to get serious with
child abusers and that the court is out of sync with public
concern and opinion."
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