The concerned father of a teenage girl who ran away from home for one night in January has confessed to repeatedly assaulting the 14-year-old boy with whom she last had contact.
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The girl, who along with her father and the boy cannot be named for legal reasons, had been on the phone to the boy on the night of January 23 when she got into an argument with her mother, prompting her to flee the family’s Illawarra home.
Her parents, believing she had gone to see the boy, drove to the teen’s house shortly after midnight searching for their daughter.
The girl’s father knocked on the door then entered the house to confront the boy, who was home alone.
He shoved the teen in the chest and said “where’s my f—king daughter?” When the teen said he didn’t know the girl’s whereabouts, the man punched him in the jaw without warning.
He then grabbed the teen by the jumper and threw him onto an adjacent couch, while demanding the boy call his missing daughter.
However, as the boy started to make the call, the man took the phone from his hand and threw it on the floor, causing it to smash.
The man then overturned a coffee table in a fit of rage and again punched the teen, this time in the torso.
The man’s wife, who had been sitting in the car, heard the commotion inside the house and came to investigate. She managed to stop the assault and she and her husband left the location.
The boy alerted a neighbour, who phoned his family. Police arrived at the house around 4am.
The girl’s father was arrested at 11 o’clock that morning.
He admitted to assaulting the teen in an interview with police, claiming he’d acted out of “frustration” and “fear” for his daughter’s welfare.
He told police he was “embarrassed and ashamed” of what he’d done.
The man pleaded guilty to three charges in court on Wednesday including assault causing bodily harm.
He will be sentenced on October 14.