Drunk granddad kicks off at girl

A man drunk on home brew spirits wished his eight-year-old granddaughter dead after she failed to roll him a cigarette, a court heard.

Kevin Ross Nichol, 53, had been drinking for much of the morning of Monday, October 8, while he and his wife tidied up a charity shop they operated from a garage in Taranaki.

Three of the pair’s grandchildren were helping and as the day wore on Nichol’s sobriety steadily decreased.

He and his wife began to disagree on the way the items in the shed had been arranged, it stated in a police summary of facts.

Not long after, Nichol asked his young granddaughter to sweep up a collection of stones in the driveway, but when this was not done to his satisfaction he began to verbally abuse her.

‘‘You’re a dumb little b .... ,’’ he said, before continuing to swear at and belittle her.

Nichol’s wife intervened, taking the girl into the garage and demanding that he leave her alone.

At that point Nichol walked across the street and to his house. About 90 minutes later he returned to the charity shop with a glass of home brew in hand and asked the youngster to roll him a cigarette.

But when she told him she wasn’t old enough, nor did she know how to do what he was asking of her, she was showered with a torrent of abuse. ‘‘I wish you were f ..... dead,’’ he told her.

Stepping in once again, his wife phoned police to report her husband. Nichol left the charity shop – but only for about 10 minutes, as he then returned driving his wife’s vehicle.

He began to verbally abuse her, too, and made threats to burn down the couple’s house. Police caught up with him shortly after and an evidential breath test was carried out.

Nichol returned a reading of 914 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. The adult legal limit is 400mcgs.

In the New Plymouth District Court yesterday, Judge Stephen Harrop said the abusive words spoken to the youngster was concerning.

‘‘It’s totally unacceptable and likely to have ongoing affects on her,’’ he said.

‘‘She’s not of an age where she can just shrug it off or put it into perspective.’’

On a single charge of driving with excess breath alcohol third or subsequent and two of speaking threateningly, Nichol was fined $1500 plus court costs, disqualified from driving for one year, sentenced to 12 months supervision and ordered he pay $500 emotional harm reparation to be shared between the two victims.