A Canberra man has escaped more time in prison for choking two teenage boys after a game of “slap-boxing” gone wrong.
Key points:
- The victims are alleged to have attacked the man’s stepson
- The man and his partner confronted the boys while they were at a sleepover
- The ACT Supreme Court “condemned” the man’s behaviour but resisted handing down further jail time
The man’s stepson was invited by three friends to play the game, which simulates boxing using open-handed slaps instead of fists, in a park in July last year.
Court documents show the boy returned home in tears a short time later, claiming the group had “jumped him” for breaking the rules, hitting his eye and nose.
The man and the boy’s mother then let themselves into an unlocked home where the boys were having a sleepover and confronted them.
“Well, you boys, we’re going to have a talk,” the 31-year-old said.
The documents show he put one 13-year-old boy into a headlock and fell on top of him onto a bed, and then grabbed another 13-year-old by the neck, briefly restricting his ability to breathe.
At the time, the boy’s mother told police her partner went into “dad mode”.
She wrote a letter to the court explaining her son had struggled with friendships due to his disabilities and she had reluctantly let him spend time with certain friends for “friendship’s sake”.
The man admitted to two counts of choking, suffocating or strangling another person, entering a last-minute plea of guilt last month, on the morning his three-day trial was set to begin.
Each offence carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
On Wednesday, he received a suspended sentence from the ACT Supreme Court of eight months and one day and was released on a good behaviour order on the condition he attend rehabilitation programs.
“Whether the cause was a spontaneous exacting of revenge for the harm done to his stepson or an impulsive and misplaced attempt at vigilante justice, it is obvious that the offence must be condemned in the strongest terms,” Justice Verity McWilliam said.
“There is nothing that excuses parents from inviting themselves into another’s household and using any force against a child victim, let alone choking them.”
The court heard the man and his partner, who now have a newborn baby “would have handled the situation very differently” if they had the opportunity.
Justice McWilliam explained the man had suffered repeated childhood trauma and substance abuse, which had had a “catastrophic effect on every aspect of the offender’s life and behaviour”.
She said the case offered him a “real opportunity to finally address and deal with a number of underlying causes” of his behaviour.
“It is important he does not give up on those steps,” she said.