71-year-old jailed for elder abuse

Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

A 71-year-old Malborough man has been jailed for a year for the "systematic, clinical abuse" of an 80-year-old man while in the younger man's care.

Judge Tony Zohrab sentenced Albert John Watson in the Blenheim District Court on Friday to 12 months jail for assault with a weapon and three months jail for assault, to be served concurrently.

Watson repeatedly punched the 80-year-old man with a stick, causing his retina to detach and leaving him almost blind, The Malborough Express reported.

The man paid Watson and Watson's wife $500 a week for 10 months to live in their van but while he was in Watson's care he received a dislocated shoulder, cuts and bruises, and was sometimes not fed.

A doctor who examined the man following the abuse said he was emaciated, weighing 40kg, and had bruising all over his body.

Judge Zorhab said the sentence was lighter than Watson deserved.

"In my view nothing short of a prison sentence is needed to deter people like you from abusing elderly people. You show absolutely no remorse.

"I appreciate prison will be difficult for you because of your age and health problems, but I'm going to show you more mercy than you showed [your victim], even though you don't deserve it."

- NZPA