A man has been sentenced to home detention for breaking a protection order and punching his 11-year-old child.
William Terrence Wichman, a 41-year-old chef, appeared in Masterton District Court last week having admitted to contravening a protection order, assault, and resisting police.
On May 24 of this year, Wichman got into an altercation with his child in Carterton while there was a protection order against him.
He punched the child in the cheek, causing an abrasion and bruising, and then resisted police when he was arrested later in the day.
Wichman had four previous convictions for breaking the protection order between 2019 and 2023.
Lawyer Andra Mobberley said her client had spent 97 days in custody and had a suitable address to serve a home detention sentence at his cousin’s house in Wainuiomata.
She said the address was “very prosocial,” and there was no suitable address outside
the Wellington region.
Police prosecutor Seargent Daniel Scott said this was the first time Wichman assaulted the child but said the child had witnessed 18 family harm incidents between Wichman and the child’s mother.
Scott noted that the child was named on the protection order before the offending.
He said there were risks with the Wainuiomata address because of its proximity to Carterton.
“The travel time is one-hour-forty-five to two hours; that’s not enough time for the electronic monitoring team to notify police,” Scott said.
Judge Andrew Nicholls said it was serious offending because people protected by protection orders needed to know they are protected.
He said the starting point was 12 months imprisonment, but he gave discounts for a guilty plea and time spent in custody.
Judge Nicholls told Wichman he should use his home detention for good.
“This sentence gives you a chance to get back into real life and demonstrate you can have normal family relationships without violence,” he said.
Wichman was sentenced to two months of home detention, with six months of post-release conditions to attend courses about violence.
