A shocking picture posted on Facebook has caused a storm of anger and indignation on social media. The picture shows a baby being given a beer at a pub with the caption ‘her first Xmas eve and beer’. The man believed to be the dad had also posted a video where he and a second person, likely the baby's mom, give vodka to the poor child.
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The video takes place in New Zealand and showsLong White vodka being poured into a baby's mouth by the woman, while the baby lies on a couch. The man sitting next to the baby is the same man who was posing with the child and the beer. He later took to Facebook to defend himself by saying that it 'was just a joke':
‘I’m being threatened over a Facebook post [because] of the video about my baby. ‘Me and my wife and a couple of my mates were there and we [were] just joking around [with] her.’
The man said he would be an ‘idiot’ if he let his daughter drink from the bottle, adding: ‘I’m a father and my kids [are] my heart.’
Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Children, said the department is taking the incident seriously. However, according to the police, there is no evidence in the photo or video that the man is actually giving the baby alcohol.
'Based on the information available from the video, it is not possible to confirm if a criminal offence has taken place.'