A court's described a man's treatment of a little girl as "prolonged bullying"

Stewart Douglass Smart appeared in the Invercargill District Court yesterday, after pleading guilty to assaulting his partner's children.

He forced a three-year-old to do push-ups, sit-ups, have cold showers and eat frozen bread.

The ODT reports the 32-year-old has been sentenced to home detention, prompting a barrage of expletives from the mother, regarding psychological damage to her daughter.

He particularly tormented the youngest child as she was toilet-training.

The judge made clear this was not discipline gone wrong -- but violence inflicted on children.