Conditional discharge after Shifnal man bruised child
A Shifnal man who assaulted a child, leaving finger-shaped bruises, walked out of court with a conditional discharge.
Christopher Seal admitted assault by beating when he appeared before Telford Magistrates Court yesterday.
Magistrates were shown pictures of the bruises inflicted as a result of the 34-year-old handling the child, who cannot be identified as a result of a court order.
Mrs Katie Price, prosecuting, said that the child had been behaving differently at school and had been more subdued since the assault which had occurred last year.
Seal, of Tanglewood Close, Shifnal, was given an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a £15 victim surcharge.
For Seal, Mr Jamie Wade said that his client accepted that he had used too much force, but emphasised that he had not hit or slapped the child.
He added that Seal had been "greatly distressed" by his actions.
Mr Wade told the court that Seal had been suffering from depression.
He was waiting to hear about a bi-polar and obsessive compulsive disorder diagnosis, Mr Wade told the court.
A spokesman for the NSPCC said afterwards that they could not comment on individual cases and sentencing was at the discretion of the magistrates.
The spokesman added: "Any act of violence against a child is unacceptable."
