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Pushy dad assaults sons over golf
When children missed shots he threw golf balls at them, hit legs with club and pinched faces
- Daily Mail
- Published: 00:00 January 27, 2012
- Image Credit: AP
- The younger child, who was also hit on the knee with a ball, was left with multiple injuries, including a scratched eye.
Burnley, Lancashire: A pushy father who dreamt of turning his two young sons into the next Tiger Woods subjected them to horrific beatings when they fluffed their golf shots.
The obsessed 33-year-old was so determined for the boys, aged six and eight, to become future champions that he gave them golf lessons before and after school every day, as well as taking them to practise at his local club and driving range.
But when the children missed putts or landed shots in a bunker, their father threw golf balls at them, hit their legs with clubs, pinched their faces and even bit them.
The beatings came to light when the younger child arrived at school in a distressed state with a mark on his eye and a teacher asked how he had received the injury. Police were called and interviewed the boys, who had been encouraged to hold a golf club before they could walk or talk.
They told officers golf was their job and the six-year-old declared: "We are going to be championship golfers when we get older."
At Burnley Crown Court, the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced to a year in jail, suspended for two years, after he admitted two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of common assault.
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He has been forced to move out of the family home in Burnley and is allowed contact with the boys only via the local authority.
Judge Beverley Lunt told the man his actions were beyond belief and she would not hesitate in sending him to prison if he laid another finger on the pair.
"This is child cruelty," she said. "It's inexcusable and I do not believe any right-thinking person could make any sense of it whatsoever.
"If you permit your obsession with golf to overcome you again and lay a finger on either of them, you will immediately come back before me and I will send you to prison."
Forceful
Sarah Statham, prosecuting, told the court the father was so desperate for his sons to become golf champions that he forced them to have lessons before school and took them to his local club or playing fields to practise after they got home. If they did not play well, however, the boys would be beaten.
Despite the elder child winning a junior golf tournament, he was struck on his leg with a club when he played a bad shot and also had a ball hurled at him from 4ft away, which gashed and bruised his ear.
The younger child, who was also hit on the knee with a ball, was left with multiple injuries, including a scratched eye.
The court also heard both boys were pinched by their father, who even sank his teeth into them on occasion.
Miss Statham said police were called when the youngest boy told a teacher his father had pinched his eye while they were playing golf before school in June last year.
A doctor who examined both children found the older boy had several ear injuries, while the six-year-old had pinch wounds on both hands, his thigh and face, and the top of his scalp was also scratched and bruised.
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