Judgments | The stepfather hit the son on the backside in Espoo, was sentenced for assault

In the year A man born in 1991 was convicted of abusing his stepchild.

Several times between 2018 and 2020, the man had hit a 6–8-year-old boy in the back at the family’s home in Espoo at the time of the events. In addition to that, the man had once put his hand on the boy’s throat and pushed the boy so that he fell.

The man lived with the boy and his mother, and the boy called the man father, even though he was not the boy’s biological father.

Proceedings came to light for the first time in the fall of 2019, when the boy told his teacher about the events. He told the teacher that he was afraid to go home. The teacher filed a child protection report and a criminal report.

In May 2020, the boy told the school doctor about the violence he experienced during a routine check-up. The school doctor made a child protection report.

When the child was questioned, he said that the father had also hit the mother and the child had started to “guard” his mother because he liked this.

Man denied the events. He said the boy lied.

The boy’s mother said she had never seen a man hit a child. According to the mother, the child interpreted as violence something that is not violence.

The family had challenges with the boy, for which help had been sought.

However, the district court considered that the child had no motive to lie about the violence he experienced.

According to the district court, what the child told both the teacher and the school doctor, who acted as witnesses, was sufficient evidence that the man had physically abused the child.

District court according to the report, the abuse could not be considered mild because the violence had taken place at home and by an adult who was safe for the child.

The district court of Länsi-Uusimaa sentenced the man to a 60-day fine for assault.

The fine was decided despite the fact that the man had previously been sentenced to a suspended prison sentence for assault.

The man was ordered to pay the child 800 euros for the pain, soreness and other temporary inconvenience caused by the abuse.

The man appealed to the Court of Appeal, but the Helsinki Court of Appeal did not grant permission for further proceedings. The judgment of the district court is therefore legally binding.