Father given house arrest for assaulting his three children
By Shurtz, Delon on March 11, 2020.
Delon Shurtz
lethbridge herald
A southern Alberta father has been placed under house arrest for assaulting his three young children between 2016 and 2017.
On Jan. 27 of this year the father, who can’t be named to protect the identity of the children, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and one count of assault with a weapon. He was handed a 10-month conditional sentence, the first five months of which he will be under house arrest, followed by five months curfew, then five months probation.
Court was told the father and his girlfriend at the time treated one of the children like a dog and dragged him by a dog leash around the house and garage. While in the garage the boy’s father held him by the dog leash and sat him on a bucket while he and his girlfriend tied the boy’s hands behind his back.
When he cried and asked his father to let him go, his father refused. When the boy asked the woman to let him go, she covered his mouth with duct tape.
The father’s stepdaughter had bruises on the sides of her legs and on her stomach, which the little girl said her father caused to punish her. The boy had what appeared to be a rope burn on his neck, consistent with being rubbed by a dog leash, as well as an abrasion on his wrist, consistent with being tied up with a dog leash.
Crown prosecutor Erin Olsen said the father also punished the children during a camping trip in the mountains by slapping their buttocks and leaving them out in the cold at night. He also hit and kicked the girl.
During the course of his sentence, the father is prohibited from having any contact with children under the age of 16 and from contacting the children’s biological mother. He must also be assessed and take counselling and treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, and to address his parenting skills.
The woman pleaded guilty late last year to one count of assault with a weapon and was handed an eight-month conditional sentence, the first four months of which was to be served under house arrest, followed by curfew.
She was placed on probation for seven months and also ordered to take counselling, avoid unsupervised contact with children under 16, and submit a sample of her DNA for the National DNA Databank.
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