Dad batters mom during violent custody dispute, holds 4-year-old daughter hostage (Charleston, West Virginia)

You can't tell me that a father like THOMAS WESTON KING doesn't have a history of this kind of erratic, violent behavior. So the question becomes: Who granted this idiot any custody rights at all after these parents separated? Let's see the names and hold thse people responsible. Obviously, a blanket "fathers rights" approach to custody is a disaster for women and children.

http://www.dailymail.com/policebrfs/201203040154

Sunday March 4, 2012
Man arrested in custody dispute, child neglect

by Ashley B. Craig
Daily Mail staff
Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A Charleston man accused of punching his child's mother during a violent custody dispute was arrested after police found the child sleeping in the man's West Side home, where he was growing marijuana.

Charleston police were called to Charleston Area Medical Center's Women and Children's Hospital Thursday to speak with a woman who claimed her child's father had beaten her and was holding their daughter in his home.

The woman, whose name was not released, told police she and Thomas Weston King, 25, had argued at his Pacific Street home over the pick-up and drop-off times for their 4-year-old daughter, according to a complaint filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court.

She said King told her he would shoot her if she took the girl and then ran into the house to get a weapon. She also ran inside, hoping to get her daughter and leave before King got his gun.

King heard her inside the home and ran toward her. She said he yelled at her that he was going to "shoot and kill her and then bury her in the back yard," according to the complaint.

The woman had the child in her arms and had been trying to get out of the house when King got between her and the door. She said she slapped King and that he punched her in the face and head.

She fell to the ground and let go of the little girl to cover her own head, she said in the complaint. King then grabbed the child and ran to another part of the house.

Officers said she had visible injuries to the left side of her face and a softball-sized knot on the back of her head. Police said she was visibly upset and scared for her daughter's safety.

Police went to the Pacific Street home about 9:30 p.m. Thursday with warrants for King's arrest. He came outside and was detained. The girl was found "safe in bed," the complaint said.

Officers also found a 3-foot-tall marijuana plant growing in a coffee can under a sunlamp in King's bedroom. Police also seized four rifles and three handguns.

King was charged with domestic assault, domestic battery and child neglect creating the risk of injury.

He was released on a $10,000 cash-only bond.