Kids learning to get out and give
A heavily pregnant woman was accidentally kicked in the stomach during a fracas outside a Taranaki courthouse.
The roundhouse-style kick was delivered by Kevin Francis Moore and intended for the woman’s partner, New Plymouth District Court was told.
The summary of facts referred to a previous beef the two men had with each other, something which Moore tried to revive on the morning of June 1.
As the parties congregated outside the New Plymouth District Court, Moore challenged the other man to a fight.
When the other man tried to walk away, the woman, who was 36 weeks pregnant, got between the pair.
Sergeant Lewis Sutton said Moore became verbally abusive to the woman, which prompted her partner to walk over and try and get her away from the defendant.
The 32-year-old then performed a roundhouse kick which was directed at the man, but instead hit the woman in the stomach.
‘‘The kick was hard and caused the victim instant pain,’’ Sutton said.
The woman was taken to Taranaki Base Hospital after the assault. Neither she, or the unborn baby, suffered any ill-effects.
On Thursday, Judge Garry Barkle queried when Moore’s ‘‘macho’’-type behaviour was going to come to an end.
His comments not only referred to the June 1 assault, but also to another incident in which Moore was involved a month earlier.
On May 11, Moore and another man were at a Hume St address in Waitara when they started to argue.
For the next five minutes the two traded blows, punches and kicks. The two men also managed to bite each other.
At Moore’s sentencing for charges of common assault and male assaults female, to which he pleaded guilty, the New Plymouth District Court heard how he was a new father himself, after the birth of his child a week ago.
Judge Barkle said he hoped the child might provide him with motivation to change.
‘‘We don’t want Mr Moore Junior to follow in his father’s footsteps.’’
Moore was sentenced to 180 hours of community work and was ordered to pay the female assault victim $500. Students at a small kindergarten have learned the importance of giving by baking cookies for their community.
On Wednesday, the children at the Topkids Inglewood childcare centre helped Julie, the centre’s chef, bake up bags of cookies and packages of macaroni cheese, before a small group of students walked down to the town’s community fridge and left the food for anyone in need.
The fridge was launched last week by S’ean Warren, who wanted to give something to the community while also taking time to look after himself and his family following his step-son’s death in a suspected suicide at the start of the year.
It works on the principle of people packaging up and leaving any left over food they may have in the fridge, which can then be picked up by anyone in the community - no questions asked.
Topkids manager Judy Brady said they had a community focus at the centre, which included fundraising for families in need and holding multicultural days.
‘‘It’s a good way to educate the children about supporting others, some of them that may be a bit less fortunate than they are.
‘‘It’s just great way to get out and about as well. The children just love doing baking and so it just ties everything in.’’
Hudson Simons, 4, said she had enjoyed the baking but the best part of the project was the walk down through town.
She also had a pretty good idea why they were doing it. ‘‘It’s for people to eat,’’ she said. Brady said they were looking to make the donation into a regular initiative at the centre.
‘‘We’re going to do this as a weekly thing, making sure we bring something down and we’ll be bringing different kids down each week so the whole centre gets variety and knows what’s happening,’’ she said.