Tired, stressed man shook baby, assaulted partner

Lack of sleep and inexperience led an 18-year-old new father to assault his partner and shake his small baby, a lawyer has told a District Court.

Alex Cocker, 19, appeared before Judge Brian Callaghan in Nelson District Court on Tuesday. He had earlier pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner and baby, and wilful damage.

Judge Callaghan said Cocker was aged 18 at the time of the offending, and a new father to a 3-month-old baby.

He assaulted his partner, punching her in the head five or six times. As she rang police, he stood over her, threatening her with a large knife that he held centimetres away from her throat. The baby was crying and hadn’t been sleeping, and Cocker picked her up and shook her, holding her by the front of her shirt so she dangled in the air, her head unsupported.

Defence lawyer Kelly Hennessey said after becoming a father at a young age, Cocker had been left to his own devices.

Lack of sleep and inexperience had led to some “poor decisions,” Hennessey said. “Being tired, and a lack of support, seems to have been what’s led to the offending.”

Cocker had experienced “dislocation” in his life with schooling, and had suffered from bullying while at school, Hennessey said. Cocker now had supervised contact with his child, he said.

Judge Callaghan noted there were no lasting injuries to the baby, “unlike a number of cases I have been involved in where babies treated like this suffer brain damage and lifelong injuries”.

The judge did not accept that Cocker’s past was an excuse for the offending, with a report describing a “good family background”.

“He had a reasonably good upbringing, although he had been bullied at school. But lots of young people have problems.”

The judge noted Cocker’s lack of previous convictions, and the “positive steps” he had taken, working with social service agency Te Korowai Trust. He sentenced Cocker to the maximum community detention sentence of six months, and 18 months’ intensive supervision.