An eight-year-old girl tried to stand her ground to stop her mother being hurt when Jason Edward Tier began smashing things with a mop.
Her brave efforts did not succeed. Thirty-four-year-old Tier grabbed the woman and threw her on to the floor which was already strewn with broken glass from an item he had smashed.
He then forced her face down on to the concrete tiles and the glass but she managed to get her forearm between her face and jagged edges. She ended the assault with tenderness to the face and forearm.
The Christchurch panel beater was already facing charges after a series of incidents a few weeks before, where he had emailed bank staff to say that he would shoot them if they tried to take his house.