Interim name suppression has been granted to a former bus driver after he was convicted of assaulting two children on a Cromwell school bus run.
The man pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting a child when he appeared before Judge Michael Turner in the Alexandra District Court yesterday.
According to the police summary of facts, about 3.30pm on Thursday, June 10 the man was the driver of a Go Bus-operated school bus which travelled from Cromwell to the Ripponvale and Bannockburn areas.
The driver was unfamiliar with the route and was trying to establish where the stops were, the summary said.
While he was attempting to get his bearings children on the bus became noisy and distracting.
After stopping to let a pupil off, the man left his driver’s seat and confronted the children, telling them to be quiet.
This did not have the desired effect.
The children laughed at the driver and continued to chant about him taking them to a local pool.
The driver then approached the first victim and grabbed his backpack, which he was wearing back-to-front.
He pulled the boy towards him but the boy began sliding out of the backpack on to the floor of the bus.
He then grabbed the boy by his neck and shook him while saying, "Do you think this is funny?".
The boy fell on to his side and curled in the foetal position on the floor and cried.
The driver then turned his attention to the boy who sitting next to the first victim and grabbed him on the knee with a firm grip to keep his balance, the summary said.
The first boy experienced pain and discomfort in his neck for about two days. The second boy was uninjured.
The driver told police he had "lost his marbles" and he knew what he was doing was wrong.
An application for interim name suppression following the granting of a registrar’s remand in July did not appear to be on file, Judge Turner said, but he granted it before convicting the man on both charges.
He is to appear for sentence on March 10.
An application for final name suppression was likely to be made as the man was seeking a discharge without conviction.
