A senior member of the Kawerau Mongrel Mob choked and stomped on his teenage daughter after he saw a cellphone photo of her making the sign of a rival gang with her fingers.

In a violent and prolonged attack that left her bleeding and badly bruised, Raymond Iveagh Jury choked his 13-year-old daughter by squeezing her neck and punching her around the head and body. When she ended up on the ground, he kicked and stomped on her throat.

In the Whakatane District Court, Jury pleaded guilty to assaulting a child and was remanded in custody for sentence on October 14, the Whakatane Beacon reported.

Charges relating to an alleged second attack three days later were withdrawn by the police.

Judge Paul Geoghegan warned the 49-year-old Kawerau man it was highly likely he would receive a prison sentence.

He said it was a vicious assault on a girl who was entitled to feel that her father should protect her.

The violence on June 21 was sparked by a cellphone photo shown to Jury by the girl's brother, with whom she had just been arguing.

It showed her completing a Crips sign. The Crips gang is affiliated to Black Power, the main rival to the Mongrel Mob.

Jury, a long-standing member of the Mongrel Mob, became enraged by the photo and questioned the girl on whether she was a "nigger" – a term commonly used by Mongrel Mob members to refer to Black Power members.

She answered "no" but Jury began to physically and verbally attack her, punching, kicking and choking her while saying such things as "next time I hear you being a nigger I will kill you".

The girl's nose piercing was ripped out and she was left with a fat bleeding lip and multiple bruises.

It took her a week to pluck up the courage to lay a complaint with the police against her father, who does not live with the family but visits often to see his children.

She told police the family had suffered a significant amount of physical abuse spanning her lifetime.

-Fairfax NZ