Father challenges smacking verdict

EXPERIENCED DAD: James Mason with one of his six children, Matilda, 2.

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LATEST: The Christchurch man sentenced for punching his four-year-old son says he is not confident of winning an appeal against his conviction.

"I did not come up to win, just to make a point," James Mason said after a Court of Appeal hearing at Wellington yesterday where he challenged his conviction for assaulting a child.

His trial last May had been described as a test case for anti- smacking law changes.

The District Court trial judge Michael Crosbie disavowed that and said it would have been dealt with no differently before the law change.

Mason, 51, a musician and hotel maintenance worker, and a father of six, spoke for himself at the Court of Appeal with his wife of 25 years, Ann Mason, at his side.

"I know what I did. I'm not confident of winning but you have to stand up for what you believe in," he said after the hearing.

Mason said outside of court that he had done the parenting course required under the supervision sentence but, with respect to the "lovely" people that ran it, all he got out of it was a gold certificate.

He has given up his daily walks with his younger children and they "get away" with more because he feels he cannot do anything about their behaviour.

Mason said he wants to form the "Jo Public" political party and stand for Parliament with policies including changing the parental discipline law, getting more support for new mothers in the first weeks after giving birth, and raising the legal drinking age back up to 21 years.

He told the three judges, who reserved their decision, he had tugged his son's hair and flicked his ear when the defiant boy wanted to ride off on his bike while Mason was dealing with two younger children.

But witnesses said he yanked the boy's ear and punched his face during the incident on the Bridge of Remembrance on December 19, 2007.

He was not arrested at the scene, was left to care for his children, and later told he would receive only a warning.

He was charged after one of the witnesses complained to police and media weeks later, he told the Court of Appeal.

One of his complaints was that the charge he was found guilty of contained both the pulling of the ear and the punching allegations and the jury was directed that he should be convicted if either claim was proved.

The judge sentenced him to nine months supervision on the basis that he punched the child.

Mason told the Court of Appeal he thought the charge should have been split so each act was a separate charge. It should have been clear what the jury thought he had done, he said.

But Crown lawyer Megan Ball said the evidence supported Judge Crosbie's decision to sentence on the basis of a punch.

- © Fairfax NZ News