A father's assaults on his children, including the use of a vacuum cleaner pipe, happened as he struggled with becoming a solo dad amid the grief of the death of the children's mother, a court has been told.
The issues were outlined by defence counsel Philip Jensen yesterday as the 33-year-old man appeared in the Napier District Court facing two representative charges of assaulting children and four of assault with weapons including the vacuum pipe.
The man had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing, but yesterday Mr Jensen said some facts were still disputed and succesfully sought a further remand.
Judge Tony Adeane remanded the man on continued bail for a probation report and sentencing on September 1.
According to the summary of facts two of his children, who were as young as 8 years old at the time of the offending, provided police with accounts of "systematic physical abuse" by their father while they were living with him.