Babysitter beaten up for sleeping

A man who beat up a babysitter when he found him sleeping has been sentenced to 120 hours' community work.

Karipori Wayne Harry Repia appeared in New Plymouth District Court yesterday, He pleaded guilty to two charges of assault.

The court was told Repia had gone out on the town on July 23, leaving a 15-year-old boy to look after the five children in his house.

When he arrived home at 1.30am the next morning he found the door locked. One of the children let him in, and he found the babysitter asleep on a bed.

Enraged, he dragged the teenager into the lounge where he hit him several times in the head. When Repia's partner tried to intervene she was also attacked.

The Taranaki Daily News reported that Judge David Ongley said Repia had a long history of violence.

- NZPA