A Dunedin man has been sentenced to 6 months' supervision after pleading guilty to assaulting a baby by biting the child's hand.
Kalib James Rule, 28, appeared in Dunedin District Court having admitted the charge. The assault occurred on 9 June last year while Rule was looking after the baby at home.
The child's mother discovered the baby had a swollen hand, and a doctor examined the child the following day. A report of concern was filed with Oranga Tamariki after the medical examination.
Rule initially claimed he had been sleeping beside the baby when he experienced an aggressive dream and woke to find himself biting the child's hand. He later gave a different account to a probation officer.
Judge Belinda Sellars KC described the offending as extremely out of character for Rule, who had no previous convictions. The court heard Rule undertook training programmes following the incident to improve his handling of stressful situations.
"You were extremely tired and stressed when this offending occurred and you made an extremely stupid decision to try and settle the baby in this bizarre manner," Judge Sellars said. "You have basically done everything you can to address this."
Judge Sellars encouraged Rule to continue working with services to prevent similar incidents.