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09-10-2011, 04:00 PM
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Grumpy Old Bugger
A 71-year-old man has been charged with assault on a child after allegedly kicking a toddler in a lift when the boy threw a tantrum. The man is not related to the two-year-old and the boy's mother was in the lift at the same time. She raised the alarm as soon as the lift doors opened. Ian Gibson Wallis, 71, appeared in Auckland District Court on Friday charged with the assault of the two-year-old. Detective Sergeant Dick Corbidge said Wallis, who is married to Auckland barrister Jan Naish-Wallis, was at Auckland City Hospital with his wife on Sunday. The couple got into a hospital lift with a mother and her son. Corbidge said the toddler was crying and throwing a tantrum. "It looks like he's lashed out and kicked him and then left." The child's mother called the police, who investigated the incident and visited Wallis at his east Auckland home. He was arrested and charged with assault. Wallis refused to comment when the Sunday Star-Times contacted him. Auckland City Hospital spokesman Mark Fenwick said the hospital has provided police with CCTV footage of the building's lifts. Police are currently reviewing the footage. |