Knocked out while protecting children

A mother trying to stop an assault on her children was knocked unconscious after being pushed onto a coffee table.

Taranaki man Damien Errol Giddens, 24, became angry on the evening of July 27 with a child who didn’t hear him tell her to set the table for dinner, a police summary of facts said.

He pushed the child’s head into the floor with his foot, causing her to cry out in pain.

The child’s mother shoved him off the child. Giddens retaliated by roughly pushing the woman around the lounge area and onto a couch where he held her down with one hand on her throat while punching her several times about the head.

A second child tried to stop Giddens hitting her mother, so he grabbed her clothing and threw her on to the lounge floor.

When the child’s mother pushed him away from the second child, Giddens pushed her backwards, causing her to hit her head on a coffee table.

The woman was knocked unconscious and it was likely she suffered concussion, along with a cut to her chin and bruising to her head, right arm and left shoulder and ribs. One of the children suffered a sore head, back and hip.

Giddens then left the address on a quad bike and was located by police the following day, the summary said. He faced two counts of assault on a child and one of injuring with reckless disregard, when he appeared in Hawera District Court on Tuesday.

In response to a sentence indication requested by lawyer Kelly Marriner, Judge Chris Sygrove told Giddens he would be sentenced to 16 months in prison or eight months’ home detention if he received a suitable report.

Giddens pleaded guilty to all three charges and was remanded until December 12 for a presentence report.

- Catherine Groenestein