Boy beaten four years ago dies in hospital

Press, 7 June 1980, Page 2

Boy beaten four years ago dies in hospital

PA Auckland A boy, aged seven, who was beaten by his stepfather four years ago for refusing to eat his tea, has died in a hospital for intellectually handicapped children, Scott James Carter was admitted to the Auckland Hospital in May, 1976, with severe brain damage and his body covered in bruises. The boy had been in several Auckland hospitals since the police found him on May 10, 1976. His stepfather, Michael Terrance Bregman, then 21, was arrested the same day, but the charge was withdrawn two months later. Bregman was re-arrested 10 months later and admitted assaulting the boy with intent to injure him when he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland on May 21, 1977. The police prosecutor said Bregman had told the police that he hit the child in a temper “because he would not eat his tea." When Bregman appeared a week later for sentence the Court was told that the boy was totally demented and possibly blind. His counsel said Bregman had suffered greatly since the offence and fellow inmates had assaulted him during a week’s remand m Mount Eden jail. Bregman, who was jailed for three years, was said by his counsel to be a young man of “otherwise excellent character” who was “very loving and kind to children.” An inquest will be held into the boy’s death.