A senior Microsoft developer is "close" to being fired after being found guilty of assaulting his 7-year-old son.
41-year-old Nicholas Lester was earlier this week sentenced to one-year community corrections to perform 100 hours of unpaid work.
The developer throttled his young boy at their home in West Melbourne in February last year. Lester attacked the child in a temper after he refused to stop playing his Nintendo Switch, and was reportedly heard screaming "I will stop him breathing".
The Herald Sun (via NintendoLife) reports the child's face turned red and he yelled for his mother, who immediately ran to see what was happening.
Lester was sentenced in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty last week to unlawfully assaulting his son.
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Magistrate Caroline Boult said: Your seven-year old son was effectively using his will against yours. In response you placed (him) in a headlock and were heard to be saying words to the effect "I'll stop you breathing". Your actions on this occasion raised the alarm of three independent witnesses who felt so concerned about what they had heard that police were called.
"Children act up, play up, resist reasonable authority - that's what children do. That's what they will continue to do. As a parent it is your responsibility to never resort to an act of family violence. The buck stops with you. There is never an excuse for family violence and the court expects that you make choices that will keep your family safe no matter how angry you feel or what the circumstances are."
Ms Boult let Lester off without a conviction, acknowledging that he had suffered from depression and had been taking steps to improve his mental health. She also pointed out that he no prior convictions, and that his job with Microsoft was already at risk as a result of his actions.