The father of a four-year-old Brim girl left trapped on a bus for nearly six hours repeatedly punched a bus driver in the head after he failed to drop his daughter at kindergarten because he believed he was intoxicated, a court heard.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The girl, a Warracknabeal Memorial Kindergarten student, failed to be dropped off at kindergarten on March 5 last year.
The girl was found covered in urine, drenched in sweat and crying at the back of the bus later that day after her father Nathan Batt raised concerns about her whereabouts.
Batt appeared in the Horsham Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
The girl was picked up at 8am at Brim, before she was driven more than 20 kilometres to the Warracknabeal kinder but she failed to get off at her stop.
The court heard the driver checked the bus at the end of the trip but failed to notice the little girl.
She was driven to a nearby depot where the bus was locked in a shed and she remained undiscovered until 1.30pm.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Michelle Wentworth said Batt became frantic when he went to pick his daughter up at the kindergarten at 1.30pm only to be told by teachers she never arrived at school.
The court heard Batt then drove to the bus depot where his daughter was found inside the bus and carried out by the driver.
Sen Const Wentworth said Batt was extremely distressed and cuddled his daughter before grabbing the bus driver by the shirt and punching him several times in the back of the head and face.
Batt then wrestled the driver to the ground leaving him with a bloodied nose, bruising to his eyes and cuts to his forehead.
The court heard Batt grabbed the victim because he wanted to smell his breath to see if he'd been drinking.
In a victim impact statement read out to the court the driver said he was suicidal in the months following the incident.
"My lifestyle has been turned upside down," his statement read. "I still don't understand how this could have happened."
The court heard the driver struggled to sleep at night, had lost trust in people and isolated himself from his friends and family.
The court heard the girl remained traumatised by the incident and was too afraid to get on a bus.
In a statement read out to the court by Sen Const Wentworth Batt expressed his remorse for the incident.
He pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful assault.
“I thought the bus driver left her on the bus because he’d been drinking,” it read. “I’m really sorry it happened.”
Magistrate Mark Stratmann said the incident was nothing short of appalling.
"Quite frankly the entire community is fortunate that your daughter wasn't fatally injured but assaults of any sort are against the law," he said.
Batt was given a 12-month good behaviour bond.