Man who assaulted 3-year-old boy in Hastings park to pay $250 to give him a treat

The boy was left covered in blood after the attack in May. Photo / Supplied

A man who attacked a gang rival in a Hastings park, leaving the victim's 3-year old son bloodied and hurt, will hand over $250 so that the child can have a treat.

Jury Te Nahu, 26, pleaded guilty to charges of common assault and assault on a child on Monday.

The Hastings District Court was told he had offered the money to his victims so the boy could be taken on a trip somewhere.

The charges related to an attack in May, when Te Nahu, a Mongrel Mob member, objected to the presence of the boys' parents in Cornwall Park.

The incident took place at Cornwall Park, Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor

He hit the boy's father, who was holding his son at the time and fell. Photos later showed the boy bleeding from the mouth and nose with blood over his shirt.

Judge Geoff Rea on Monday asked why Te Nahu thought he should be "policing" Cornwall Park.

Defence counsel Laurie McMaster said it was "an incident he now regrets".

"He knows he handled it badly. This is not his normal behaviour," she said.

"He accepts he should have removed himself from the park and not behave the way he did."

McMaster said Te Nahu had offered to pay the $250 in instalments. She also said he had started a course that teaches participants how to avoid violence.

Judge Rea sentenced Te Nahu to nine months of supervision with conditions to be set by a probation officer and said he expected that would include completing the course, run by Dove Hawke's Bay.

He ordered an emotional harm payment of $250 to be paid before December 31.

After the May assault, members of both the Mongrel Mob and Black Power gangs were among several dozen who gathered for a hui in another Hawke's Bay park to discuss violence in the community.