A dad who hit his ten-month-old baby son has been ordered to pay the little boy £50 in compensation. Don't spend it all at once, kid.
The 24-year-old father, from Okehampton, Devon, hit the baby because he knocked a photo frame off the TV, according to the Daily Mail.
The boy was left with facial injuries and finger marks on his cheek but his father said he had only "clipped" or "tapped" him.
However the baby's mother took her son to a doctor and the police were called.
In court the father admitted hitting the baby and said instead of slapping his hand he had slapped him in the face.
After the slap the baby had two parallel lines around his eye and from his head to his left ear. Doctors said this had been caused by a "forceful slap to the face", according to prosecutor Neil Lawson.
The Mail reports that the father is now estranged from his partner and son and that his defence lawyer Rachel Bentley said he was "sorry".
The Mail says she told magistrates in Exeter: "An offence of hurting a child is always very serious and emotive. He went to the police voluntarily, he held his hand up. He does not have a record of violence and this was out of character.
"It was an isolated incident. He was annoyed with the boy, he is sorry."
Apparently the father was also under stress because his partner had post-natal depression, there was a terminal illness in his family and there had been an arson attack on their home.
He was given a 16-week jail sentence, suspended for a year, 60 hours of community service, ordered to deal with his anger issues, and told to pay the baby £50 in compensation.
The Mail says that magistrates said the low compensation figure was "not to minimise the seriousness of the offence" but took into account the father's unemployment.
It is thought the father will still be able to see his son as no restraining order was sought.
This does seem a bit of a bizarre punishment. Let's hope the baby buys himself something nice...
There will be some who think parents shouldn't be prosecuted at all for slapping their kids and others who think this man got away too lightly. What do you think of the sentence for this father?
Source: Daily Mail