Security guard who brutally beat 5-yr-old boy with belt for wearing pink clothes gets just 2 months in prison for the violent assault
A young boy puked and wet himself after a security guard beat him with a belt because he was wearing pink clothes, a court heard.
Speaking at the Manchester Crown Court, prosecutor Neil Ronan said Garret Anderson, 50, assaulted the boy, 5, because he was offended by the color of the clothes he was wearing, reported Manchester Evening News.
A witness at the scene recalled how, after the assault, the young child said he needed "a wee" and quickly ran to the toilet, where he "threw up" and "wet himself." They also said they heard Anderson tell the boy, "We don't wear pink. We don't wear girls' clothes. Do you understand?"
The 50-year-old then admitted to others that he hit the boy with the belt and bragged, "Good, then he won't do it again."
When confronted about it in court, he is said to have hit back with, "When I was younger, we got leathered with a belt."
Ronan said the incident left the victim with a bruise on his hip, and that in the aftermath, he had been "emulating" what he had suffered with other children.
His lawyer, Miss Ashraf, said her client had struck the five-year-old just once and that the injury was "modest." She pointed out how he had pleaded guilty "at the very earliest opportunity" and had given a "full and frank admission" after his arrest by the police.
She said it was a "very unfortunate incident for all parties" but that her client had been waiting for 13 months for the case to be resolved and had been "punished enough," pleading the judge to suspend any prison sentence handed down.
Judge Patrick Field QC ultimately considered that plea, noting that Anderson was previously of a good character and "works hard for a living and continues to do so." "Beating a child may well have been commonplace in the past. We both know it was," he told the 50-year-old. "But we don't do it any more Mr. Anderson. Beating a child of that age with a belt is unacceptable."
"It's nothing more than bullying behavior that can cause a lot more harm than rather superficial bruises that we see in the photo and indeed I'm pleased to learn you now appreciate that," he added.
Anderson, who pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing actual bodily harm, was given a two-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months.