Man given conditional discharge for beating stepchildren with belt

St. Catharines Standard Wednesday March 5, 2003
Local page A 5

Children wrote letters in support of stepfather.

By Jennifer Kennedy Standard staff.

Underlining the fact her ruling wasn’t contrary to the public interest, a judge gave a stepfather a conditional discharge Tuesday for assaulting his children with a belt.

Donnie McLean came to court a respectable man free of a criminal record, as a businessman who has upheld high moral standards, as a father who pleaded guilty and admitted he went to far in disciplining his children, justice Martha Zivolak said in her ruling.

Agreeing with Toronto defence lawyer Munyonzwe Hamalengwa, the judge gave the 35 - year old Grimsby man a conditional discharge. For 12 months, McLean must keep the peace toward his two teenaged stepchildren and not use physical force to discipline them.

McLean will not have a criminal record if he upholds the judge’s conditions.

“This case is not about religion or religious beliefs.” said Zivolak in her ruling.

“You have acknowledge your wrongdoing,” she continued. “You have spared the children from testifying.”

On the day his trial was set to begin last month, McLean pleaded guilty to two counts of assault, admitting he hit the stepchildren with a belt.

He admitted in Ontario Court of Justice he hit his 16-year-old stepdaughter and 15-year-old stepson with a belt to discipline them for not doing their housework.

He was originally charged with assault with a weapon.

During this sentencing Tuesday, Hamalengwa said his client could produce a “roomful of character witnesses.” He read in court passages from letters the two children wrote, expressing a desire to have McLean return to the family home. Assistant Crown attorney Grace Pang characterized the accused as someone who has control over his family. “I’ve never been able to shake the feeling of coercion (by the father) in this case,” she said. At the time of the plea, the prosecution told Zivolak that McLean believes it is his parental right to discipline his children by hitting them. On the day of the offence, McLean was angry the son hadn’t cleaned his dishes and the daughter was derelict in cleaning a bird cage.

The assault came after the mother woke the children around 11 p.m. Dec. 11, and ordered them to complete their chores.

Using a leather belt, the stepfather struck the son on the back of the head and on the mouth, legs and back.

He hit his daughter on the face, back and legs, said Pang. The daughter suffered a swollen right cheek, while the son’s lip was cut.

Police in Toronto were contacted after the two victims went to their private school in Toronto the next day and friends noticed the daughter’s facial injuries.