Angry dad advised to review his lifestyle
A Dannevirke man was told to take a look at his lifestyle and look after himself when he appeared in Dannevirke District Court.
Appearing for sentence on two charges of family violence was Zac Matthew Tau who was represented by counsel Leo Laferty.
“Tau arrived home from work drunk. He wasn’t happy with the meal his on-and-off partner of 13 years and the mother of his four children had prepared,” Lafterty told the court.
“He became angry, she asked him to leave. He refused so she tried to push him out of the door because she was scaring their children.”
Tau pushed his partner to the floor and kicked her in the head. She called out to her aunt who was in the house, but Tau pushed her away.
Laferty told the court that Tau’s partner became scared of him because she said he had not acted in that way before.
But she wanted Tau to be involved in raising the children.
“She is struggling to have the children on her own and wants them to have their father in their lives.”
Judge Stephanie Edwards told Tau it was clear he worked hard and that was a positive in his life.
“What you acknowledge yourself is that you drink pretty hard too. But you need to acknowledge that your partner has a busy household.
“You say yourself that you forget when you come home from working a 12-hour day that she’s been managing the home.”
Judge Edwards said it was part of Tau’s lifestyle that there was drinking on the way home from his work in shearing sheds.
But Tau was risking his own health and his family life, she said.
“You have four children who are watching you and will model their own behaviour on your behaviour.”
She urged Tau to look after himself. “Alcohol and cannabis don’t help.”
She considered that a sentence of supervision would be sufficient in the long-term rather than a rehabilitative sentence.
Tau was sentenced months’ supervision.
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