A Dunedin man on trial for domestic violence charges, including assaulting a baby, has admitted drop-kicking a kitten.
Cory James Gilliand-Dickson, 20, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday for a judge-alone trial, but at the 11th hour pleaded guilty to a charge of ill-treating an animal.
He was defending charges of assault in a family relationship, assaulting a child, threatening to kill and supplying cannabis, stemming from incidents between January and May last year.
The court heard from two witnesses who lived with Gilliand-Dickson at the time and were brothers of his partner.
The younger brother said he saw the defendant kick their pet kitten down the hallway so high it nearly touched the ceiling.
He estimated Gilliand-Dickson kicked the kitten about six or seven metres and described it like "kicking a rugby ball over a rugby goal".
He said this caused its back to break and later it started bleeding from the face, so he killed the kitten to end its suffering and buried it outside.
The next day, Gilliand-Dickson dug up the dead kitten and decapitated it using a pickaxe.
"I don’t know what happened with the cat after that. I was trying to stop myself from vomiting when I [saw] that," the witness said.
He said the defendant told him what he had done, but did not offer any explanation.
The witness also said Gilliand-Dickson fed his partner’s baby beer from a sippy cup.
"He said he’s gonna give him beer and he grabbed the sippy cup and walked off to the kitchen ... I thought he was having a laugh," he said.
He said the next morning the baby was vomiting and it smelled like beer, and so did the sippy cup.
The witness claimed he saw Gilliand-Dickson hit the baby on his head with a soup spoon and described it as a "hard donk", an incident the witness’s brother also said he saw.
Both brothers also said the defendant dropped the baby on different occasions.
The younger brother said he saw Gilliand-Dickson pick the child up and drop him on his bottom, while the other witness said he saw the defendant forcefully throw the child on to a mattress.
They both claimed the defendant had hit their sister, the defendant’s partner, leaving her bruised.
She told her siblings Gilliand-Dickson had been hitting her and the flatmates wanted him out of the house.
At the beginning of the trial, counsel Brendan Stephenson outlined the defence to each charge.
He said the defendant and his partner were "play-fighting" and he only had "playful" contact with the child.
Mr Stephenson indicated his client would give evidence that the two brothers had caused injuries to their sister and the child.
The trial continues today and is expected to hear from nine police witnesses.
