Zacaria Eric Reid: 46-year-old sentenced to 19 months prison after CCTV showed him beating 9yo stepdaughter

A meth-addicted stepfather hit his nine-year-old stepdaughter so hard he left fingerprint-shaped bruises on her face, all while CCTV captured the “disgusting” abuse he inflicted on the girl. Zacaria Eric Reid, 46, was sentenced in Mandurah Magistrates Court to 19 months in prison on Friday after footage of multiple violent assaults inflicted on the child was played in court. Reid, who appeared via videolink from prison, cried as the police prosecutor described the attacks on his stepdaughter that were filmed on two occasions in February. Footage captured on CCTV and played in court showed a much larger Reid towering over the girl, causing her to flinch. She began crying after he hit her with a metal spoon. On another occasion, the footage showed the small-framed girl sitting at the kitchen bench while Reid verbally berated her. During the attack that lasted an hour-and-a-half while the girl remained sitting at the bench, Reid slapped her face, knocking her glasses off, threw an empty 2.5L soft drink bottle at her head, followed by a pizza box, then took a shirt hanging over his shoulder and whipped her. He finished the cruelty by taking both hands and slapping them into both sides of the girl’s face, which caused fingerprint-shaped bruises that were noticed at school. The girl could be seen covering her face with her hands and crying during the attack. During both incidents, the girl’s mother walked in and out of the kitchen, occasionally stopping to kiss Reid and laugh with him. A teacher at the girl’s school reported the bruises and police searched Reid’s home on February 20, uncovering 8.5g of methamphetamine and the incriminating CCTV footage. A verbal presentence report revealed Reid thought the child was disrespecting her mother and screaming and shouting and he wanted her behaviour to stop. Duty lawyer Dan Jones said Reid began a relationship with girl’s mother seven years ago, who was “still supportive of him”. He said financial stress from being the sole breadwinner meant Reid had been experiencing anxiety and was isolating himself to use meth in the back shed. Magistrate Leanne Atkins said the hard facts were disturbing, but the recording was even more disturbing and she questioned how the girl’s mother could watch Reid assault her child. “It beggars belief you’d treat a child this way,” she told Reid. “It’s appalling and disgraceful. You are nothing more than a bully, you are a disgrace. “You say this child mouthed off to their mother. This doesn’t mean you assault them. It is not discipline you are inflicting, it is family violence and you need to learn the hard way that treating a small child that way is unacceptable.” Ms Atkins sentenced Reid to 19 months in prison for two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm in circumstances of aggravation, common assault in circumstances of aggravation, and possession of methamphetamine. He will be eligible for parole.