Kamloops dad guilty of assault after 'childish' argument with pre-teen escalates to violence

'Unhinged' dad beats child

Photo: KTW file

A Kamloops dad who beat his pre-teen daughter with a pair of work boots after an argument about loading the dishwasher turned into “a petulant tit for tat” has been convicted of assault.

The 41-year-old man cannot be named under a court-ordered publication ban put in place to protect the identity of the victim. He stood trial last year on one count of assault and the judge found him guilty on Monday.

The offence dates back to the summer of 2022, when the man and his daughter, who was 12 at the time, became involved in an argument about the proper way to load the dishwasher.

The man swore at the girl and she responded by squirting a glob of lotion onto his foot. He took that lotion and rubbed it into a brand new pair of sneakers his daughter had recently purchased with her own money.

She responded to that by retrieving her dad’s prized Kamloops Blazers jersey and dumping oil on it, sending him into a rage.

The girl then ran toward the front door, where her dad cornered her in a closet. He put steel-toed work boots on either hand and swung at her, striking her approximately eight times in the torso and upper leg, court heard.

'Unhinged' parenting behaviour

Kamloops provincial court Judge Marian Armstrong called it “childish retaliation” and “a petulant tit for tat campaign."

“[His] behaviour was unhinged from rational adult parenting throughout this incident — swearing at his child, at best calling her ‘a bitch’ and at worst calling her ‘a f--king bitch,’” the judge said.

“It set the tone for what transpired next.”

Armstrong said the girl’s actions were equally immature, but she is a child and he is not.

"The childishness of the behaviour of [the girl] in squirting lotion on her father set the tone for her father’s childish retaliation in putting the lotion onto [the girl’s] shoe,” she said.

“Each escalation flowed naturally from its predecessor, up to and including the boot incident.”

He denied hitting girl

The man denied hitting the girl, but Armstrong did not believe his story.

Another witness, the girl’s friend, also testified that she saw him striking her with the boots on his hands.

The girl did not suffer any significant physical injuries in the incident.

Armstrong had harsh words for the man and said his actions could impact family law proceedings, which are ongoing separately from the criminal trial.

“Parenting a pre-teen girl requires a level of maturity and selflessness that was shockingly lacking on this occasion,” she said.

Lawyers will return to court on March 10 to set a date for sentencing. The man is not in custody.