A Flaxmere father of four has admitted in the Hastings District Court to assaulting five children during a drunken episode where he threatened to burn them with boiling water.
Eugene John Davis Kemp, 31, pleaded guilty in Hastings District Court this week to indictable charges including five counts of assault on
a
child, and one of male assaults female arising from an incident on the afternoon of January 27.
The court heard Kemp arrived home about 1pm on January 27 after drinking for four hours and discovered the house was locked.
He began yelling to be let in, knocking on the windows and the doors.
When his partner let him in, he began a string of emotional abuse towards her and their four children, plus a visiting niece.
All were aged under 13 years.
Kemp is reported to have tormented the six occupants for more than two hours.
During that time he demanded the children stand outside in the cold, before he fetched a can of spray paint and placed it in the oven, turning it up high.
With a boning knife in his hand, he then asked one of his children to explain why he wasn't let in the house.
When he didn't receive an answer he threatened to cut the child's legs and her siblings hands.
The children were told to get into the kitchen, watched him boil the jug and were repeatedly asked to put their hands on the bench.
His partner intervened and he poured water at her feet. The hot liquid splashed on to her and two of the youngsters' legs.
Eventually he told all of the children to leave the house.
Police said the children were not physically hurt but were all traumatised by the incident.
In explanation of his actions, Mr Kemp told the court, "I didn't lay a finger on them."
He will be sentenced in Napier in March.
Meanwhile, Trent Owen Ngaruhe Hapuku, 21, has been charged with the manslaughter of the infant.
Five-month-old Mikara Reti died in January in the same suburb.
The Flaxmere man had been in an relationship with the baby's mother, Jamie Reti, for about four months.
Mikara's death came just four weeks after 5-year-old Sahara Baker-Koro was found dead in bed in her Napier home.
Napier man Kerry Ratana, 24, has been charged with manslaughter and sexual violation.
