A father with two girls at College Charles III has appeared in court charged with assaulting the two youngsters, aged 11 and 13.

The Monaco Criminal Court was told that the 38 year-old unemployed man, separated from the children’s mother since 2013, hit the children with his hands and a leather belt. He assaulted the younger sister after learning that she had used an electronic cigarette, local French-language daily Monaco Matin reported.

It was the school that alerted the mother after bruising was found on the younger child, and she alerted the police.

In court the defendant said that his own childhood had been violent and that he had lost his job during the summer.

The prosecuting counsel called for a prison term, but the court suspended the 18-month jail term, pronounced a three-year period of probation, ordered him to seek treatment and banned him from seeng his daughters for one month.

However, since he was already subject to a suspended sentence imposed in 2019 for drug use, the culprit was sent to jail for five months.