Police: Dad gagged, hogtied, and then beat 8-year-old son (Gainesville, Florida)

Why was a dad with this kind of violent criminal history allowed anywhere near this child? And why was the father's mother on the premises, but not, apparently, the mother? Where is the mother?

Dad is identified as RICHARD WRIGHT.

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/state/police-man-gagged-hogtied-and-then-beat-son-8

Police: Man gagged, hogtied and then beat son, 8

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - A father is charged with aggravated child abuse after authorities say he gagged and pinned his 8-year-old son to the floor and then beat him, The Gainesville Sun reports.

Police say Richard Wright, 29, was arrested Monday night after he beat his son that Saturday.

According to a Gainesville Police Department report, Wright wrapped a shirt around the boy's nose and mouth, gagging him.

He was beating the boy's buttocks with a belt, but missed once and hit him in the eye, breaking a blood vessel.

Wright's mother screamed at him to stop. When the father did, she took the boy to the hospital and then went to police. She told officers that she suspected her son was drunk.

Wright has an extensive criminal history, including arrests on charges of robbery with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm/ammunition by a convicted felon, possession of cocaine, and resisting an officer with violence.
He was arrested without incident but denied the charges. Wright is held in the Alachua County jail with bail set at $25,000.