A court's heard how a Dunedin man sent a four-year-old to bed so he could kick the boy's mother repeatedly as she lay on the ground

The Otago Daily Times reports the man told the woman, "I'm going to prison for this, so I better make a good job."

Richard Mason McQuarrie appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to three separate assaults on the woman and breaching a protection order.

But his prediction of incarceration was off the mark.

Judge Michael Turner sentenced him to four months' home detention, taking into account he had spent three months behind bars awaiting resolution.