Notice that the parents do not live together, and that the mother was picking up the daughter at the father's home. So it appears that this was a custody/visitation situation.
In addition, notice that the mother was also attacked with a belt during the custody exchange.
The exact nature of the custody situation, as is typical, is not explained. Did the belt-obsessed UNNAMED DAD have physical or legal custody? Was this a "joint" situation? We don't know, we aren't told.
Also notice that even with physical evidence of abuse, the police refuse to make an arrest. Typical of a state which is beholden to the fathers rights movement. How much you want to bet that this father had a history of domestic violence/child abuse that was ignored by the courts in their rush to give this nutball his "rights"?
http://www.indystar.com/article/20130820/NEWS02/308200016?odyssey=mod%7Cmostcom
Indianapolis man suspected of whipping 7-year-old daughter with belt for kissing boy
Aug. 20, 2013
Written by
Bill McCleery
Police are investigating allegations that a Westside Indianapolis father beat his 7-year-old daughter with a belt because she kissed a boy at a birthday party.
The 26-year-old man also wielded the belt against the girl’s mother, the woman told police, when the woman became angry about the man’s actions toward the girl.
Both the girl and the woman had welt marks on their legs when police spoke with them an hour after Sunday’s incident, according to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department report.
The mother told police she learned of the belt-whipping about 6:20 p.m. Sunday when she stopped at the man’s home north of 21st Street near the White River. She was there to pick up the couple’s daughter.
The woman noticed marks on the girl’s legs, the IMPD report said, and when she asked the man about it, he “stated that they were at a birthday party earlier (Sunday) and she had kissed a boy so he punished her by whipping her with a belt when they got home.”
At that point, the man started to whip the girl again, the woman told police. The girl hid between a couch and closet door, she said.
At one point, the man struck the woman on her left leg with the belt as the two argued over the girl’s treatment.
The man then suggested the two sit down and more calmly discuss the situation, the woman said, but the woman refused and left the man’s home with her daughter.
An evidence technician took photos of the belt marks, an IMPD officer wrote, and the case has been turned over to a child abuse detective. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday morning.
Anytime Indianapolis police encounter cases of suspected child abuse, the Marion County prosecutor gives those reports high priority, said Peg McLeish, spokeswoman for the prosecutor.
“Incidents involving suspected child abuse, neglect or battery are reviewed for potential criminal charges on a case-by-case basis,” McLeish said.
“It is important that anyone suspecting child abuse report their concerns to the Indiana Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-800-5556 and request an investigation by the Indiana Department of Child Services.
“If a child may be in immediate danger, call 911,” she said.