A man has been sentenced in the Auckland District Court to a three-year prison term for his part in the abuse of his nine-year-old daughter.
The man and his wife, who have name suppression to protect the identity of the child, are now both in prison for carrying out systematic and abuse of the child.
The man admitted slapping, smacking and kneeing his daughter.
He pleaded guilty to two representative charges - one of assault the other of neglect.
Last year, his wife was sentenced to 7½ years in prison after pleading guilty to a number of assault, cruelty and neglect charges.
In sentencing, Judge Brooke Gibson said he accepted the girl's father was not responsible for the serious injuries inflicted by his wife, but told him he had stood by and failed to prevent his partner's wickedness towards the girl.
What your daughter needed was a kind and loving environment.....but instead she was subjected to horrific physical abuse.
In court, the man's lawyer, Brenda Donald, said her client eventually wants to have his children back.
However, Child, Youth and Family says it cannot foresee it ever agreeing to him regaining custody of any of his children, considering the harm done to the girl.
The case prompted the Government to commission an independent report into child abuse.
