A MAN and woman have avoided jail for assaulting their children.

Despite being found guilty, the 38-year-old father from Auchinleck still maintained that his actions were ‘reasonable chastisement’ when he appeared at Ayr Sheriff Court on Tuesday, June 11, alongside the children’s 29-year-old mother, from Drongan.

The pair were found guilty of assaulting their two young daughters aged 10 and seven, between January 2016 and November 2018.

The father was found guilty of four charges against the children, including one charge of slapping and punching one of the girls on the body and on another occasion he threw a bottle which struck her on the head. He was also found guilty of verbally abusing the children by shouting and swearing at them and calling them offensive names.

The mother was guilty of three charges including striking one of the children on the head and body with her hand and on one occasion butting her on the head and pulling her by the body.

The dad’s defence counsel Ian Gillies told the court: “He’s 38-years-old, a single man and stays in Auchinleck.”

“He did just chastise the children”, Mr Gillies said before Sheriff John Montgomery told him: “Punching and slapping a child is not chastising.”

Mr Gillies replied to the Sheriff: “To the leg and arm?” to which the Sheriff responded: “Do you know the law, Mr Gillies?”

The solicitor continued to tell the court his client’s circumstances and maintained his justification for the assaults. Mr Gillies added: “His position is he fully accepts your Lordship found him guilty, but what he sees is what he did was fully reasonable.”

Speaking on the mother’s behalf, solicitor Ms McMillan told the court: “There has been a background of experience of domestic abuse from the co-accused. It’s had a serious impact on her own mental health. She has no previous convictions.”

“She is terrified of a custodial sentence”, Ms McMillan added.

The pair avoided jail but Sheriff Montgomery placed the pair on Community Payback Orders where they must both carry out 180 hours of unpaid work. This must be completed within six months.

Sheriff Montgomery addressed them both, saying: “It’s very clear to me that these children were subject to bi-products of domestic abuse that previous existed.

“The reason you thought it was reasonable chastisement is beyond me.

“You assaulted these children, so did you (to the mother).”