Conditional sentence for striking infant son

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This article was published 24/08/2022 (1191 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 23-year-old Westman father will be spending the next six months under house arrest after he admitted to spanking his crying infant son three times in order to quiet him down.

Since the identity of the victim is protected under a publication ban, the Sun will not be naming him or disclosing any information about the father that could cause the family further grief.

The man appeared in a Brandon courtroom on Monday for sentencing, with defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn telling Judge Donovan Dvorak that he reached a joint recommendation alongside Crown attorney Jonathan Mays.

For committing assault causing bodily harm, both Synyshyn and Mays were recommending that the young father be put under a six-month conditional sentence order, with both attorneys believing that the guilty party is not likely to re-offend.

“It’s more a situation where the Crown is hoping this is a one-off situation for a young father who just ran into some difficulty due to the stress of being a new parent and dealing with that situation,” Mays said.

While the lawyers didn’t get into the specifics of the case on Monday, a look at the pre-sentence report revealed that the assault originally took place in December 2020.

According to this report, the man was having a challenging time adjusting to his new role as a father, resulting in many sleepless nights that were compounded by some personal issues.

This all came to a head during one night and early the next morning when the 23-year-old was woken up by his son crying.

After his attempts to calm the infant failed, and fearing that the neighbours might call the police because of all the noise, the father slapped his son with an open hand on the buttocks three times.

A short time later, the 23-year-old’s mother transported the infant to the hospital after she discovered what had transpired.

Luckily, Synyshyn told the court on Monday that the son has made a full recovery and won’t be suffering from any long-lasting injuries following the assault.

The infant is currently in the care of his grandparents, while the father is allowed to take part in supervised visits.

The pre-sentence report also states that the father is remorseful for his actions and has been working with a counsellor to help him make better decisions in the future, which gives Mays confidence that a six-month conditional sentence is the right way forward.

“This is a situation where, given the serious nature of the incident, the bruising and the aggravated features that are involved, this could have been a custodial sentence of real jail,” he said.

“But given some of those positive features of the PSR, and the fact that [the father] is on a more positive path, it would seem that disrupting that at this point may not be beneficial to anyone.”

Dvorak ultimately agreed with this joint recommendation put forward by the Crown and the defence, which also includes a one-year period of supervised probation.

During this six-month conditional sentence, the 23-year-old will be confined to his home and must abide by a curfew and a variety of other conditions.

While Dvorak expressed some sympathy for the father on Monday, admitting that every parent is imperfect and “makes mistakes,” he completely condemned the use of this kind of discipline, especially against someone so young.

“There are other ways to guide children that doesn’t involve causing physical harm to them,” he said.

“To me, your behaviour is beyond the pale, treating your son, a baby, like that. It should never happen and, of course, protection of children is uppermost in the court’s mind.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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