A 43-year-old Queenstown man was found guilty of assaulting his 19-month-old daughter when he appeared in the Queenstown District Court yesterday.
The man, who has interim name suppression, defended the charge at a hearing before Judge Dominic Flatley.
Two witnesses for the prosecution gave evidence they saw the man hitting his daughter in Gorge Rd on November 6.
The two men said that they heard a baby crying and saw the man bending over the pram and hitting her three times with an open hand.
The two men reported what they saw to police.
In a taped interview with police, which was played in court, the man said his daughter had been crying and having a tantrum because she was hungry and teething.
He denied he had hit his daughter.
Judge Flatley found the man guilty after no defence evidence was presented.
He deferred sentencing to August 9.
However, he indicated the man would be discharged without conviction if he attended parenting and anger management programmes.
