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Mandurah: man pleads guilty to assaulting wife and stepson

Rachel FennerMandurah Coastal Times

A 35-year-old man with an intellectual disability pleaded guilty in Mandurah Magistrates Court on April 11 to assaulting his wife and stepson.

The accused, who cannot be named, committed the first offence in the presence of his mother-in-law, his stepson and his infant daughter.

The police prosecutor told the court the accused was attending a parenting course in Mandurah on December 7, 2014.

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He began yelling, pulled his shirt off and kicked his wife in the knee.

The accused was told the police would be called, so he left.

On May 1, 2016, the family, which had grown to include a third infant child, were at home.

The accused caught his stepson stealing food from the kitchen before bedtime about 8pm, so he grabbed him by the shoulders.

His wife came to her son’s aid and the man pushed her.

At 11pm on May 8, the couple became involved in a verbal argument and the accused grabbed his wife’s hand, and pushed it backward.

Counsel for the accused told the court the man had since separated from his wife.

Their youngest child was five weeks old when the man assaulted his stepson.

“(His wife) had medical complications and spent a month in hospital and they thought she’d die,” she said.

“He had lots of responsibility.”

She told the court the eight-year-old has autism is gluten intolerant and the man saw him eating pasta, and grabbed his shoulders.

When he grabbed his wife’s wrist, it was because the man believed his wife was going to strike him.

The accused is now living with his new partner and her two children.

Magistrate Anne Longden ordered psychological and pre-sentence reports.

The man will be sentenced on May 26.