TWO Melbourne children, a boy 10, and his sister, 9, want their stepfather jailed for ''100 years'' for his violent disciplinary and punishment regime that fractured their bodies and young lives.
For 18 months, the man repeatedly smacked, punched and kicked the children, forced them to do push-ups and sometimes assaulted them as they struggled to comply.
A prosecutor yesterday told the County Court that when the children, then eight and seven, were examined at the Monash Medical Centre in 2008, each had multiple healing rib fractures.
Christopher Beale said their bodies were also covered with bruises. Doctors found the boy had 29 injuries and the girl 44 injuries. Mr Beale said the man, 33, once told the children's mother, whom he had also punched, when she threatened to leave him that he would cut out their unborn child from her stomach.
The names of the children and their mother cannot be published, and the man's name was also suppressed.
Mr Beale said that after the man began a relationship with the woman in April, 2007, he assumed the disciplining of the children and became ''increasingly violent in his treatment of them, repeatedly and forcefully smacking, punching and kicking them''.
He forced them to do push-ups for long periods, sometimes for over an hour, and ''made them sit for long periods in the corner with their backs straight, causing them considerable pain''.
Teachers at the boy's school kept a record of his bruises, which he claimed were from falls or self-harm, while Mr Beale listed 11 times when he was hit to the face.
He was also struck to the head with a cricket bat, had surgery after the base of his penis was pinched with pliers and then doctors found he earlier had suffered a broken femur.
Mr Beale said another teacher listed injuries to his sister after she was struck to the head and face. In victim impact statements, compiled from interviews with a psychologist, the children, who live with their mother, speak of their nightmares.
The boy said the man made him feel like a bad person, while his sister, who said she and her brother wanted him jailed for 100 years, recalled him ''walking around all night, up and down the hallway'' checking if they were in bed.
The man, who has been in custody since his arrest in October 2008, pleaded guilty to nine assault charges, including three of intentionally causing serious injury. Defence lawyer Con Mylonas said his client had had a dysfunctional upbringing, was a teenage alcoholic then drug user and was assaulted by his father.
In a first-time parenting role, ''he was unable to control the children [so] he started dealing with the situation the way he would have been dealt with'', Mr Mylonas said.
''It was what he knew,'' he said.
The hearing was adjourned for psychiatric and neuro-psychological assessments.
Email a friend