Dad sent to jail for striking 2 1/2-year-old daughter (Charleston, West Virginia)

Even though Mom had to attend class and take care of a sick relative, Dad EVAN MATTHEW SWAIN just couldn't step up to the plate and take care of a 2-year-old without hitting her hard enough to require hospitalization.

http://www.dailymail.com/policebrfs/201107120769

Tuesday July 12, 2011
Father sent to jail for striking daughter


by From staff reports
Charleston Daily Mail Advertiser
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A young Dunbar father has been ordered to South Central Regional Jail to await sentencing for striking his daughter in October after she made a mess in her bedroom.

Evan Matthew Swain, 21, was indicted by a grand jury in May on a charge of child abuse resulting in injury. He pleaded guilty before Kanawha Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman Tuesday.

Swain told the judge he hit the 2 ½-year-old girl on the face, bruising her. She was taken to a hospital a few days later for treatment.

Prosecutors also said the father, who was watched the child while her mother attended school and cared for sick relatives, threw a bottle of baby powder at the girl and then struck her with his hand. The incident occurred after the child emptied the powder container around her bedroom.

Swain posted a $5,000 bond in May and was placed on home confinement. But Kaufman revoked that bond Tuesday and ordered him to be incarcerated until his sentencing in August.

He had been ordered to have no contact with his daughter and his attorney said he has not, even though a family court judge agreed to supervised visits.

Swain faces a possible one to five years in prison.