KEY POINTS:
A host father who punched his 15-year-old Chinese exchange pupil about the head has been convicted and ordered to pay $1000 reparation to his victim for emotional harm.
Arthur Dean Martin, 49, of Hokitika, appeared before Judge Stephen O'Driscoll in Alexandra District Court on Wednesday.
He admitted a charge of assaulting the boy at his Hokitika home on July 4.
Police said Martin became angry with the boy and punched him about the head before he was restrained by his wife. The boy received a cut lip, bruised ear and sore ribs. The victim had been in an online phone conversation with his father in China, allowing the father to record the incident when it occurred.
The recording, which was later circulated on the internet website YouTube, shows Martin shouting at the boy and being told to stop by his wife.
Education providers were shocked and outraged by the incident, since more than 15,000 international pupils were attending secondary schools around the country.
Martin admitted the charge in court.
Judge O'Driscoll said it was difficult to know the rights and wrongs of what occurred between Martin and his victim during the months leading up to the incident.
The victim had lived with the family for five months before the assault.
Martin was ordered to pay reparation to the boy within seven days.
"The victim was vulnerable due to his age and the fact he was an international student in a foreign country," Judge O'Driscoll said. "You were in a position of trust and it is disappointing to see something like this occurred."
- NZPA
