The Court of Appeal has quashed a sentence of home detention and imprisoned a man for causing grievous bodily harm to his baby daughter.
James Robert Hall was 19 in 2011 when he admitted two charges of causing grievous bodily harm to the four-month-old, included breaking both her legs.
At the Napier High Court in August this year, Justice Peters determined that a starting point for sentencing Hall was three years and three months' imprisonment which she reduced to just below two years, given the offender's age and early guilty plea.
The judge was able to impose home detention, as the sentence was under two years.
On appeal, the Crown succesfully argued that the judge's starting point was too low as the Sentencing Amendment Act 2008 calls for tougher sentences for violence against children.
The Court of Appeal found that the correct starting point for the sentence should have been four years' jail, which it reduced to two years and five months.
