A dad who fractured a bone in his son’s face during a row over school attendance is to be reunited with him after a judge was told how they miss each other.
The 40-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, punched the 13-year-old in the face several times, fracturing his eye socket, and staff treating him at Dewsbury Hospital called the police.
Leeds Crown Court heard the child skipped school because he was getting bullied and told his dad’s partner that he had slept through his alarm instead as he was embarrassed.
Now the man, whose son usually spends weekends at his house, has told a judge: “I felt terrible. I felt terrible every day. Three months have gone by without seeing him.”
And his son, now aged 14, has said: “I would like to get things sorted and see him again. I just want things to be okay and I want my dad to be okay.”
Robert Galley, prosecuting, said that the man had confronted the boy about the truancy, shouting, and after pushing him onto his bed, the child shouted: “Hit me again, I dare you!”
Mr Galley said that when the man’s partner had seen the boy’s injures she felt physically sick and called his mother.
The boy was taken to hospital where he was told he would need surgery, but he was only in pain for a few days and did not end up getting surgery.
The defendant, who represented himself in court, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is now taking anti-psychotic medication and anti-depressants, as well as seeking further anger management treatment.
He had pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.
Sentencing the man to a two-year community order including a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement, Judge Geoffrey Marson QC told him: “I am not going to send you to prison today because this seems to be an exceptional case.
“You have the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia which you have had for a long time. Months before this incident you realised you were becoming mentally unwell and you got some help so you did not just ignore it.
“When you hit your son I am satisfied the reason you did that was because you were mentally unwell. It reduces your responsibility - it does not excuse what you did.
“Also, you have continued to accept help since then and you are much better now and the risk of you doing it again has been reduced significantly.
“At the top of my list of reasons is your son. I take the view it would be adding to his misery and punishment if I sent you to prison today.”
