KEY POINTS:
Sentencing of a father, who bit the face of his four-week-old baby boy so hard that his skin was pierced, was delayed today when he appeared in Rotorua District Court.
Carl Anthony St Clair-Newman, who earlier pleaded guilty to assaulting a child, was remanded on bail until September 13 for further victim impact and medical reports concerning injuries and effects on the baby.
The court had been told St Clair-Newman's partner called him on December 1 asking him to look after their baby because she was tired.
When the baby would not stop crying St Clair-Newman said he tried to suckle the infant on the lip, as he had seen his partner do.
But the baby kept crying and St Clair-Newman bit down on the top of the baby's lip and nose, piercing the skin.
He then woke his partner and took the baby to Tauranga Hospital after they could not stop the bleeding.
The baby had teeth marks and cuts to his upper lip and a cut to his nose.
- NZPA
