Man jailed for abusing wife, kids

A Bay of Plenty truck driver has been jailed for three years and five months for repeatedly physically abusing his children and assaulting his wife.

Truck driver Bryce Vickers, 37, kicked, slapped and smacked his children between 2002 and 2009, abuse which began when some of the victims were just newborns or toddlers, Tauranga District Court was told.

So bad was the abuse that Vickers' stepson, now eight, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from which he might never recover, the Bay of Plenty Times reported.

Vickers last month pleaded guilty to 20 charges of assault on a child, and one charge each of injuring with intent to injure, injuring with reckless disregard, assault with a weapon, and assaulting a female.

At sentencing this week, Judge Louis Bidois said Vickers "created a reign of terror in his home".

On one occasion, Vickers left his stepdaughter without medical treatment after he kicked her in the bottom about 10 times with steel-capped boots.

He also subjected the children to repeated hard smacks with a wooden spoon, ear pulling and twisting, and shaved his stepdaughter's hair off.

Defence counsel Liz Jamieson said Vickers "was a bit slow" but had accepted responsibility for his wrongdoing and felt remorse.

Judge Bidois said Vickers may well have thought that he was disciplining his children, but it was difficult to understand how he could have ever thought it was acceptable to mete out this type of violence.

- NZPA