Opinion: No excuses for assaulting children

Robert Ngarimu Simpkins (left) and his father Robert Miroa Simpkins have been sentenced on assault charges.

I should know better than to let comments on social media wind me up - I bite my tongue reading them every day, knowing people have a right to their opinions.

But some of the reaction to former Steamer and Rotorua Boys' High head of rugby Ngarimu Simpkins and his father Robert Miroa Simpkins being convicted after three young teens were assaulted has riled me.

Many of the comments I read on social media were along the lines of the little punks got what they deserved and the Simpkinses should have been rewarded not punished for teaching them a lesson and that the men were unfairly prosecuted.

Are you kidding me?

Since when is it okay for a grown man to pin a young teenager on the ground, punch him in the head (more than once) then kick or punch him in the stomach? To force one of those children into a car and threaten him? To punch a child in the face, knocking him to the ground?

Those are all facts Ngarimu Simpkins pleaded guilty to.

He didn't call the police - as the sentencing judge suggested would have been the appropriate action. It was not his job, or his right, to punish the boys.

It scares me that some people think this is behaviour we should be excusing, or even worse, applauding.

New Zealand has a well-documented problem with child abuse and violence, yet some seem willing to pick and choose when we condemn violence and when we make excuses.

I don't care what those kids did or didn't do before these assaults. Though, for the record, two of them didn't steal a thing.

By punishing Simpkins and his father for what they did, the court is not condoning kids stealing shoes. But one does not justify the other. It's called victim blaming. It's not acceptable when it's sexual assault and it sure as heck is not acceptable when it's assault of a child.

Simpkins and his father are grown men who on that day hugely overreacted and committed a crime. They admitted it. They haven't made excuses for their behaviour, so tell me, why on earth should anyone else?