SA:Parents charged in child restraint case

AAP General News (Australia)
12-09-2010
SA:Parents charged in child restraint case

By Liza Kappelle

ADELAIDE, Dec 9 AAP - A South Australian couple accused of criminal neglect after their
unrestrained toddler became a paraplegic in a car crash have lost a bid to have their
names suppressed.

Leonid Pesin, 54, and Nonna Pesina, 50, have appeared in the Elizabeth Magistrate's
court each charged with criminal neglect for allegedly not properly restraining their
young son in the car.

Police allege the child was sitting on his mother's lap in the back seat when the collision
occurred on April 15, 2010, on Angle Vale Road at Hillier.

The three-year-old boy's spine was severely damaged in the crash, and he is now a paraplegic.

This is is the first time a criminal neglect offence has been laid in South Australia
over an alleged lack of child restraints in a car.

In court on Thursday, defence lawyer Ronald Bellman asked for his client's names to
be suppressed, arguing publication would identify the boy and cause him undue harm - even
though he did not read newspapers or go to school.

"It is clear that the police really want to make a case out of this," Mr Bellman told the court.

"We believe the media are going to hound this one."

The family was under enormous stress from the tragedy, and media attention would increase
their stress and negatively affect the child, he said.

Magistrate Terry Forrest rejected the application and remanded the couple to reappear
on February 9, 2011.

Criminal neglect offences usually apply to abuse cases and carry a maximum penalty
of five years' imprisonment where a child is seriously injured.

AAP lk/jl

KEYWORD: PESIN

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