Toddler assault accused gets bail

A dairy worker Aaron Kenneth Charles Howell has been charged with an assault that police say has left a two-year-old boy with brain damage.

Howell, 21, appeared before Judge David Saunders in the Christchurch District Court today and was remanded on bail to October 28.

During the remand, he will have to live at a specified address in Coalgate, inland from Christchurch, and has been banned from contacting three specified people.

He entered no plea to the charge of causing the boy bodily harm with reckless disregard for safety.

Police allege the assault happened at a house at Otahuti, in rural Southland, on May 31.

The boy was taken from Southland Hospital to Christchurch for an operation, and then on to Starship Hospital in Auckland, where he spent five weeks. He is now being cared for by family members in the North Island.

Police say he is progressing well but has a brain injury.

- NZPA