UNNAMED DAD. No word as to what happened to this boy's mother.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-mountie-wife-continue-trial-on-severe-child-abuse-1.3226475
Ottawa Mountie, wife continue trial on severe child abuse
WARNING: Story contains graphic and disturbing details
CBC News Posted: Sep 13, 2015 4:47 PM ET
Last Updated: Sep 14, 2015 7:26 PM ET
An Ottawa Mountie and his wife were arrested in 2013 in what police called the "worst case of abuse police have seen."
An Ottawa woman told police "I haven't done anything" after she and her RCMP officer husband were accused of severe long-term abuse of the man's 11-year-old son, including chaining him up in the basement of their home, court heard Monday.
The woman, 36, and man, 44, are on trial for what Ottawa police called the "worst case of abuse police have seen" when they were arrested in February 2013. They cannot be named to protect the boy's identity.
Each is on trial for aggravated assault, forcible confinement and failing to provide the necessaries of life.
The woman is also charged with assaulting the child with a weapon, while the man is charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon.
On Monday, court saw the woman's police interview via video, which was taken after her arrest. She told police her 11-year-old stepson was "out of control" and that she feared for the safety of her toddler and four-month-old baby.
She said she never hit the boy nor was she aware of his many injuries, including burn marks near his genitals, scabs and scars on his body and that he was gaunt and malnourished.
At one point, Ottawa Police Sgt. Tracy Butler told her in a raised voice the boy was "maltreated and abused by your husband."
She added, "you knew about it, you condoned it and you let it happen."
The woman, who was at times emotional during the interview, said, "I haven't done anything. I swear to God."
Father admitted to confining son
During the interview, which lasted more than two hours, the woman told police her stepson was stealing and getting into fights.
She said he was sent to private school after being kicked out of school, but the boy began being home schooled in 2012.
She said the boy was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and oppositional defiant disorder and prescribed anti-psychotic medication.
She also said she worried he had sexual feelings for her after he asked her to breastfeed him.
"(He) didn't attach to me. I love him but it was difficult to reach out to him when he's mocking me all the time," she said.
She also said he told his father he would "initiate sexual things with other boys" at school and camp.
Last week, the court heard the man admit he used a chain and plastic ties to confine his son in the family's Kanata basement in his police interview video.
In 2013, the RCMP said the father has been on leave since May 2011, but the reason for that remains under a court-ordered publication ban.
Police sources previously told CBC News the man was a member of the force's counter-terrorism unit.
The trial continues.
Showing posts with label ADHD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ADHD. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Dad gains custody of 4-year-old daughter so he could claim more benefits, kills her two months later (United Kingdom)
The reason custodial dad CARL WHEATLEY was able to murder his 4-year-old daughter: Fathers rights politics. In reality, he was nothing but an anonymous sperm donor who apparently didn't even know the mother was pregnant much less provide for her or the child in any way. He seemingly had no relationship with this girl. But because sperm trumps the needs of a child for safety and security, Daddy got his way along with all the financial benefits he craved. Didn't matter one whit that this girl had already be been wrested from her mum (for reason that are not explained, but very likely minor--at least compared to Daddy's crimes). She was then wrested from the next family she knew, the foster parents. None of her needs or wishes mattered. Only Daddy's ego, laziness, entitlement, and need for control mattered. Notice that he also wanted possession of a little boy he had apparently never had anything to with either. That's the FR movement, folks. Enabling lazy dole-seeking child abusers and killers.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-killed-four-year-old-daughter-after-5598046?ICID=FB_mirror_main
Dad 'killed four-year-old daughter after winning custody of her to claim more benefits'
17:23, 28 April 2015
By Catherine Varney
Carl Wheatley caused several of his daughter's teeth to fall out and made internet searches for 'how to reduce swelling' and 'what glue can I use to put teeth back in', the court heard
A dad who won custody of his four year-old daughter so he could claim more benefits beat her to death just two months later, a court heard.
Carl Wheatley admits killing young Alexa-Marie Quinn in March last year - just two months after the local authority granted him custody from foster parents - but denies it was murder.
The "frustrated" supermarket worker lost his temper and delivered a "sustained period of hard beating" to the youngester, his trial heard.
Wheatley, 30, claims to have called 999 two minutes after Alexa-Marie stopped breathing, but the prosecution say she could have been dead for hours.
He made several internet searches for 'how to reduce swelling' and 'what glue can I use to put teeth back in'.
Prosecutor Christopher Donnellan QC said Wheatley fought for custody of Alexa-Marie and his three year-old son so he could claim more benefits.
He said: "He was of the view that having one or both children with him would enhance his benefits and could result in better accommodation."
The court heard Wheatley called emergency services just after 9am on March 12, 2014 after a "period of sustained beating."
He claimed Alexa-Marie had stopped breathing two minutes beforehand but the CPS claimed he waited "some time" before calling emergency services.
When he eventually made the call he said she was drowning because he believed she had fluid on her lungs.
Wheatley, who has ADHD, cried in the dock as the first 999 call he made to emergency services was played in court.
He told the operator: "She's drowned. She's drowned in fluid, she might have internal fluid on her lungs. She needs an ambulance right away.
"I've had her for a few months, I got a bit frustrated with her and I harmed the poor child.
"I'm being honest with you I need to think about my child."
The prosecution said despite Wheatley knowing he had killed his daughter, he phoned emergency services and carried out a "charade" and performed CPR on the child.
Mr Donnellan said: "He lost his temper with her, she was just four-and-a-half years old.
"This wasn't just a single blow, this was a sustained period of hard beating of her."
A pathologist said Alexa-Marie's injuries were caused by "blunt force trauma to the skin".
The court heard in the early hours of the morning that Alexa-Marie died Wheatley made internet searches for 'what effects can internal bleeding cause' and 'can lots of bruising get infected'.
Mr Donnellan added: "In the weeks before she died when he hit her he hit her hard and he hit her more and more.
"He went to considerable lengths to avoid Alexa-Marie being seen by anyone.
"He knew at the time what he was doing and that he was causing her harm. Harm that was visible to the paramedics who witnessed the level of bruising to her lower body.
"That is why we say the charge in this case is murder."
When Alexa-Marie was due to go back to nursery school after half-term in February, Wheatley lied and told staff he was in Leeds and his car had broken down.
Alexa-Marie had been living with Wheatley in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, since January 2014 when he won a long battle with Bedford Borough Council.
She had been in the care of foster parents after being taken from her mother Victoria Quinn several years earlier.
At the time it was unclear who her father was but in 2012 a paternity test proved Wheatley to be the father and he was granted supervised access to the little girl. After a number of visits and meetings social services granted him full custody and the case was then passed to Hertfordshire County Council.
Mr Donnellan told the jury: "You will hear from a number of agencies over why Mr Wheatley was given custody of Alexa in the first place and why there wasn't more supervision.
"It will be suggested that this could have prevented Alexa's death. But the defendant made his own choices. He chose to not contact anyone for help."
Wheatley was also fighting for custody for another three year-old son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who he had with another woman.
Wheatley denies murder but admits manslaughter by reasons of diminished responsibility.
The trial continues.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-killed-four-year-old-daughter-after-5598046?ICID=FB_mirror_main
Dad 'killed four-year-old daughter after winning custody of her to claim more benefits'
17:23, 28 April 2015
By Catherine Varney
Carl Wheatley caused several of his daughter's teeth to fall out and made internet searches for 'how to reduce swelling' and 'what glue can I use to put teeth back in', the court heard
A dad who won custody of his four year-old daughter so he could claim more benefits beat her to death just two months later, a court heard.
Carl Wheatley admits killing young Alexa-Marie Quinn in March last year - just two months after the local authority granted him custody from foster parents - but denies it was murder.
The "frustrated" supermarket worker lost his temper and delivered a "sustained period of hard beating" to the youngester, his trial heard.
Wheatley, 30, claims to have called 999 two minutes after Alexa-Marie stopped breathing, but the prosecution say she could have been dead for hours.
He made several internet searches for 'how to reduce swelling' and 'what glue can I use to put teeth back in'.
Prosecutor Christopher Donnellan QC said Wheatley fought for custody of Alexa-Marie and his three year-old son so he could claim more benefits.
He said: "He was of the view that having one or both children with him would enhance his benefits and could result in better accommodation."
The court heard Wheatley called emergency services just after 9am on March 12, 2014 after a "period of sustained beating."
He claimed Alexa-Marie had stopped breathing two minutes beforehand but the CPS claimed he waited "some time" before calling emergency services.
When he eventually made the call he said she was drowning because he believed she had fluid on her lungs.
Wheatley, who has ADHD, cried in the dock as the first 999 call he made to emergency services was played in court.
He told the operator: "She's drowned. She's drowned in fluid, she might have internal fluid on her lungs. She needs an ambulance right away.
"I've had her for a few months, I got a bit frustrated with her and I harmed the poor child.
"I'm being honest with you I need to think about my child."
The prosecution said despite Wheatley knowing he had killed his daughter, he phoned emergency services and carried out a "charade" and performed CPR on the child.
Mr Donnellan said: "He lost his temper with her, she was just four-and-a-half years old.
"This wasn't just a single blow, this was a sustained period of hard beating of her."
A pathologist said Alexa-Marie's injuries were caused by "blunt force trauma to the skin".
The court heard in the early hours of the morning that Alexa-Marie died Wheatley made internet searches for 'what effects can internal bleeding cause' and 'can lots of bruising get infected'.
Mr Donnellan added: "In the weeks before she died when he hit her he hit her hard and he hit her more and more.
"He went to considerable lengths to avoid Alexa-Marie being seen by anyone.
"He knew at the time what he was doing and that he was causing her harm. Harm that was visible to the paramedics who witnessed the level of bruising to her lower body.
"That is why we say the charge in this case is murder."
When Alexa-Marie was due to go back to nursery school after half-term in February, Wheatley lied and told staff he was in Leeds and his car had broken down.
Alexa-Marie had been living with Wheatley in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, since January 2014 when he won a long battle with Bedford Borough Council.
She had been in the care of foster parents after being taken from her mother Victoria Quinn several years earlier.
At the time it was unclear who her father was but in 2012 a paternity test proved Wheatley to be the father and he was granted supervised access to the little girl. After a number of visits and meetings social services granted him full custody and the case was then passed to Hertfordshire County Council.
Mr Donnellan told the jury: "You will hear from a number of agencies over why Mr Wheatley was given custody of Alexa in the first place and why there wasn't more supervision.
"It will be suggested that this could have prevented Alexa's death. But the defendant made his own choices. He chose to not contact anyone for help."
Wheatley was also fighting for custody for another three year-old son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who he had with another woman.
Wheatley denies murder but admits manslaughter by reasons of diminished responsibility.
The trial continues.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Dad admits he slammed and threw 2-month-old daughter; blames his ADD (Malone, New York)
His ADD made him do it? These guys sure come up with lots of excuses for their violence.
Dad is identified as JAMES J. WHITNEY.
http://www.pressrepublican.com/news/local_news/malone-father-admits-to-child-assault/article_242eddcc-b057-5579-bfe7-76f373447d4e.html
Malone father admits to child assault
Posted: Monday, November 10, 2014 2:42 pm
Denise A. Raymo, Press-Republican
MALONE — A Malone man pleaded guilty Monday to assaulting his infant daughter and will be sentenced in Franklin County Court on Jan. 26.
James J. Whitney, 29, admitted to reckless assault of a child and confessed that, while she was in his care on Dec. 29, 2013, he slammed and threw the baby girl, then 2 months old, so that her head hit a hard surface.
Jaycie Whitney, who celebrated her first birthday on Halloween, reportedly has some developmental issues as a result of her father’s violence.
He could face up to six years in state prison for the violent-felony conviction.
Whitney was deemed competent to stand trial last month during a hearing held before County Court Judge Robert G. Main Jr.
The defense, headed by Public Defender Thomas Soucia, had claimed Whitney could not fully participate in his defense at trial because he has attention-deficit disorder, heightened anxiety levels and trouble understanding the more complicated words police investigators and mental-health experts used when interviewing him.
Prosecution witnesses said Whitney would have likely been under great stress while on trial, but that would not have caused him irreparable mental harm.
Main agreed, saying accommodations could be made to reduce the anticipated stress.
Dad is identified as JAMES J. WHITNEY.
http://www.pressrepublican.com/news/local_news/malone-father-admits-to-child-assault/article_242eddcc-b057-5579-bfe7-76f373447d4e.html
Malone father admits to child assault
Posted: Monday, November 10, 2014 2:42 pm
Denise A. Raymo, Press-Republican
MALONE — A Malone man pleaded guilty Monday to assaulting his infant daughter and will be sentenced in Franklin County Court on Jan. 26.
James J. Whitney, 29, admitted to reckless assault of a child and confessed that, while she was in his care on Dec. 29, 2013, he slammed and threw the baby girl, then 2 months old, so that her head hit a hard surface.
Jaycie Whitney, who celebrated her first birthday on Halloween, reportedly has some developmental issues as a result of her father’s violence.
He could face up to six years in state prison for the violent-felony conviction.
Whitney was deemed competent to stand trial last month during a hearing held before County Court Judge Robert G. Main Jr.
The defense, headed by Public Defender Thomas Soucia, had claimed Whitney could not fully participate in his defense at trial because he has attention-deficit disorder, heightened anxiety levels and trouble understanding the more complicated words police investigators and mental-health experts used when interviewing him.
Prosecution witnesses said Whitney would have likely been under great stress while on trial, but that would not have caused him irreparable mental harm.
Main agreed, saying accommodations could be made to reduce the anticipated stress.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Update on dad convicted of killing 7-year-old son during court-ordered summer visitation (Worcester, Massachusetts)
No tears of grief for dad LESLIE G. SCHULER, who just HAD to have "his rights"....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/23/worcester-man-who-beat-his-son-death-father-day-found-hanged-walpole-state-prison-cell-death-not-suspicious-officials-say/q3twN1N8628m1d6rLylhrK/story.html
Worcester man who beat son to death found hanged in prison
By John R. Ellement | Globe staff
May 23, 2014
Leslie G. Schuler had pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of his son in Worcester Superior Court this month.
Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette/AP
A man who admitted to murdering his 7-year-old son on Father’s Day in 2009 was found hanged in his cell early Friday at the state prison in Walpole, the state Department of Correction said.
Leslie G. Schuler was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years following his guilty plea to second-degree murder in Worcester Superior Court this month, said the Correction Department and the Worcester district attorney’s office.
Schuler was in a cell by himself in the maximum-security prison when he was discovered at about 4:30 a.m., Correction Department spokesman Darren Duarte said in an e-mail.
The prison, formally known as MCI-Cedar Junction, is a facility where men who are newly committed to state prison spend their first few months behind bars before being transferred to other prisons across the state, according to the Correction Department website.
A spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, whose office is investigating Schuler’s death, said the Worcester man was discovered in his cell by a correction officer making routine rounds.
“His death does not appear to be suspicious at this time,’’ spokesman David Traub said.
The state medical examiner’s office will determine a cause of death and decide whether Schuler, 41, committed suicide, officials said.
According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a Worcester prosecutor said in court May 6 that the child, Nathaniel Turner, was taken off attention deficit medication in 2009 by his father, who began physically disciplining him, including spanking him.
The boy had been raised by his grandmother in Alabama until Schuler obtained a court order allowing him to spend the summer with him in Worcester, the Telegram reported.
The physical violence against the child escalated, and on Father’s Day in 2009, Schuler became enraged when his son vomited on a Father’s Day card. Schuler grabbed the child by the neck, struck him in the face, pushed him into a wall, and poked him in the stomach, the Telegram said.
When the child vomited a second time, Schuler knocked him off a chair, causing the child to hit his head on the floor, according to court records.
The boy was unresponsive the next day and was taken to St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, where he died two days later, the Telegram reported. Schuler was arrested in 2009 and had been in custody since then, the newspaper said.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/23/worcester-man-who-beat-his-son-death-father-day-found-hanged-walpole-state-prison-cell-death-not-suspicious-officials-say/q3twN1N8628m1d6rLylhrK/story.html
Worcester man who beat son to death found hanged in prison
By John R. Ellement | Globe staff
May 23, 2014
Leslie G. Schuler had pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of his son in Worcester Superior Court this month.
Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette/AP
A man who admitted to murdering his 7-year-old son on Father’s Day in 2009 was found hanged in his cell early Friday at the state prison in Walpole, the state Department of Correction said.
Leslie G. Schuler was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years following his guilty plea to second-degree murder in Worcester Superior Court this month, said the Correction Department and the Worcester district attorney’s office.
Schuler was in a cell by himself in the maximum-security prison when he was discovered at about 4:30 a.m., Correction Department spokesman Darren Duarte said in an e-mail.
The prison, formally known as MCI-Cedar Junction, is a facility where men who are newly committed to state prison spend their first few months behind bars before being transferred to other prisons across the state, according to the Correction Department website.
A spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, whose office is investigating Schuler’s death, said the Worcester man was discovered in his cell by a correction officer making routine rounds.
“His death does not appear to be suspicious at this time,’’ spokesman David Traub said.
The state medical examiner’s office will determine a cause of death and decide whether Schuler, 41, committed suicide, officials said.
According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a Worcester prosecutor said in court May 6 that the child, Nathaniel Turner, was taken off attention deficit medication in 2009 by his father, who began physically disciplining him, including spanking him.
The boy had been raised by his grandmother in Alabama until Schuler obtained a court order allowing him to spend the summer with him in Worcester, the Telegram reported.
The physical violence against the child escalated, and on Father’s Day in 2009, Schuler became enraged when his son vomited on a Father’s Day card. Schuler grabbed the child by the neck, struck him in the face, pushed him into a wall, and poked him in the stomach, the Telegram said.
When the child vomited a second time, Schuler knocked him off a chair, causing the child to hit his head on the floor, according to court records.
The boy was unresponsive the next day and was taken to St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, where he died two days later, the Telegram reported. Schuler was arrested in 2009 and had been in custody since then, the newspaper said.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Dad sentenced to 11 year, deportation for attempted murder of 4-year-old twin daughters (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Daddy coddling in Denmark.
Dad is identified as GRAHAM BISHOP.
http://cphpost.dk/local/father-sentenced-eleven-years-prison-and-deportation-assault-twin-daughters
Father sentenced to eleven years in prison and deportation for assault on twin daughters
RW November 20, 2013 - 12:31
Court rules that former reality star 'clairvoyant' Graham Bishop was sane when he attacked his children
Englishman Graham Bishop, the 59-year-old medium/clairvoyant who has appeared on reality television shows such as ‘Åndernes Magt’ and ‘Klarsyn’, was sentenced to eleven years in prison and deportation by Copenhagen City Court yesterday. Bishop was found guilty of the attempted murder of his four-year-old twin daughters last week, but sentencing was delayed while the court considered Graham’s contention that he was temporarily insane at the moment of the crime.
He blamed the attack on medicine he was taking for his ADHD.
The stabbing occurred in August 2012, when the father took a knife to his daughters in the Ronald McDonald patient housing at the city hospital, Rigshospitalet. The family was there because one of the girls was receiving dialysis treatment for chronic liver failure. Graham locked himself in the room with his daughters and his wife notified police that he was making threats with a knife. After throwing himself out of the girls’ window, police kicked down the door to find that the girls had been stabbed.
Brutal attack
The court ruled that the attack on the girls was so vicious that Graham must have intended to kill them. The assault has left both girls with permanent injuries, particularly the one who was already suffering from liver failure.
It was revealed during the case that she had endured spastic paralysis, lost much of her sight and will likely live a shorter life because of her father’s attack.
Bishop moved to Denmark from Swindon in southwest England in 2000. He is described as being “active in the spiritual environment in Denmark”, which helped land him spots on several television shows. Graham claimed to be able to communicate with spirits by going into a trance and being possessed by someone who Graham calls ‘Dr Karl’. According to Bishop, Dr Karl is a German physician who was born in 1848 and began performing operations on people at the tender age of 12. Bishop claims that Dr Karl is his “main spirit guide” who uses Bishop’s body to help “heal” people in need.
On his now defunct website, Graham detailed his connection to Dr Karl:
“All of my life I felt a bit of an outsider and I have experienced many things that seemed to have no practical explanation,” Bishop wrote. “It has been many years now that I have been honoured with sharing a very deep personal connection with Spirit Dr Karl, and work in the state of ‘deep trance’ (from my viewpoint a totally unconscious state). This particular spiritual ability is rare and so I am one, of only a few, able to offer this unique service of providing such strong and direct access to those in the spirit world.” After Bishop serves his sentence, the court ordered that he be immediately deported.
Dad is identified as GRAHAM BISHOP.
http://cphpost.dk/local/father-sentenced-eleven-years-prison-and-deportation-assault-twin-daughters
Father sentenced to eleven years in prison and deportation for assault on twin daughters
RW November 20, 2013 - 12:31
Court rules that former reality star 'clairvoyant' Graham Bishop was sane when he attacked his children
Englishman Graham Bishop, the 59-year-old medium/clairvoyant who has appeared on reality television shows such as ‘Åndernes Magt’ and ‘Klarsyn’, was sentenced to eleven years in prison and deportation by Copenhagen City Court yesterday. Bishop was found guilty of the attempted murder of his four-year-old twin daughters last week, but sentencing was delayed while the court considered Graham’s contention that he was temporarily insane at the moment of the crime.
He blamed the attack on medicine he was taking for his ADHD.
The stabbing occurred in August 2012, when the father took a knife to his daughters in the Ronald McDonald patient housing at the city hospital, Rigshospitalet. The family was there because one of the girls was receiving dialysis treatment for chronic liver failure. Graham locked himself in the room with his daughters and his wife notified police that he was making threats with a knife. After throwing himself out of the girls’ window, police kicked down the door to find that the girls had been stabbed.
Brutal attack
The court ruled that the attack on the girls was so vicious that Graham must have intended to kill them. The assault has left both girls with permanent injuries, particularly the one who was already suffering from liver failure.
It was revealed during the case that she had endured spastic paralysis, lost much of her sight and will likely live a shorter life because of her father’s attack.
Bishop moved to Denmark from Swindon in southwest England in 2000. He is described as being “active in the spiritual environment in Denmark”, which helped land him spots on several television shows. Graham claimed to be able to communicate with spirits by going into a trance and being possessed by someone who Graham calls ‘Dr Karl’. According to Bishop, Dr Karl is a German physician who was born in 1848 and began performing operations on people at the tender age of 12. Bishop claims that Dr Karl is his “main spirit guide” who uses Bishop’s body to help “heal” people in need.
On his now defunct website, Graham detailed his connection to Dr Karl:
“All of my life I felt a bit of an outsider and I have experienced many things that seemed to have no practical explanation,” Bishop wrote. “It has been many years now that I have been honoured with sharing a very deep personal connection with Spirit Dr Karl, and work in the state of ‘deep trance’ (from my viewpoint a totally unconscious state). This particular spiritual ability is rare and so I am one, of only a few, able to offer this unique service of providing such strong and direct access to those in the spirit world.” After Bishop serves his sentence, the court ordered that he be immediately deported.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Dad convicted of attempted murder for stabbing of twin 4-year-old daughters; he blames his ADHD meds (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Methinks UNNAMED DAD is full of bull malarkey.
He was all crazy from his ADHD meds? Sure. People on ADHD meds stab little kids in locked rooms all the time, right? While also being apparently integrated enough to traumatize the mother locked outside by sending her threatening text messages.
Doesn't even pass the smell test.
But it does sound a lot like a classic case of a controlling/abusive father out to "punish" Mom (for her real or imaginary deeds) by hurting her children. Notice that this explanation is not brought up, even though this is the kind of abusive daddy hostage situation seen way too many times in way too many places.
http://cphpost.dk/national/father-found-guilty-trying-kill-his-twins
Father found guilty of trying to kill his twins
November 15, 2013 - 13:48
Court will hand down punishment next week after a determination is made on the man's mental state Copenhagen City Court found a 59-year-old man guilty of the attempted murder of his four-year-old twin daughters yesterday, but the court will have to wait until next week to hand out the punishment because it has not yet been determined if the man was temporarily insane at the moment of the crime.
The father blames the attack on medicine he was taking for his ADHD.
Unquestionable viciousness
The stabbing occurred in August 2012, when the father took a knife to his daughters in the Ronald McDonald patient housing at the city hospital, Rigshospitalet, where the family was staying because one of the girls was receiving dialysis treatment for chronic liver failure.
The court ruled yesterday that the attack on the girls was so vicious that he must have intended to kill them, pointing to evidence that showed the father locking himself in a room with the girls and sending threatening texts to the mother outside the door.
“I mean it! If I see the police then it will be the end of us three,” one of the texts read, according to judge, Sanne Bager.
The assault has left both girls with permanent injuries, particularly the one who was already suffering from liver failure.
It was revealed during the case that she had endured spastic paralysis, lost much of her sight and will likely live a shorter life because of her father’s attack.
Punishment in the case is expected to be handed down on November 19.
He was all crazy from his ADHD meds? Sure. People on ADHD meds stab little kids in locked rooms all the time, right? While also being apparently integrated enough to traumatize the mother locked outside by sending her threatening text messages.
Doesn't even pass the smell test.
But it does sound a lot like a classic case of a controlling/abusive father out to "punish" Mom (for her real or imaginary deeds) by hurting her children. Notice that this explanation is not brought up, even though this is the kind of abusive daddy hostage situation seen way too many times in way too many places.
http://cphpost.dk/national/father-found-guilty-trying-kill-his-twins
Father found guilty of trying to kill his twins
November 15, 2013 - 13:48
Court will hand down punishment next week after a determination is made on the man's mental state Copenhagen City Court found a 59-year-old man guilty of the attempted murder of his four-year-old twin daughters yesterday, but the court will have to wait until next week to hand out the punishment because it has not yet been determined if the man was temporarily insane at the moment of the crime.
The father blames the attack on medicine he was taking for his ADHD.
Unquestionable viciousness
The stabbing occurred in August 2012, when the father took a knife to his daughters in the Ronald McDonald patient housing at the city hospital, Rigshospitalet, where the family was staying because one of the girls was receiving dialysis treatment for chronic liver failure.
The court ruled yesterday that the attack on the girls was so vicious that he must have intended to kill them, pointing to evidence that showed the father locking himself in a room with the girls and sending threatening texts to the mother outside the door.
“I mean it! If I see the police then it will be the end of us three,” one of the texts read, according to judge, Sanne Bager.
The assault has left both girls with permanent injuries, particularly the one who was already suffering from liver failure.
It was revealed during the case that she had endured spastic paralysis, lost much of her sight and will likely live a shorter life because of her father’s attack.
Punishment in the case is expected to be handed down on November 19.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Teen boy found chained in basement of custodial dad is now gaining weight, recovering (Clay County, Missouri)
This is the first mention I have seen of the non-custodial mom, who obviously had been stripped of her visitation rights. This is a typical abuser move. After all, if Mom isn't allowed to visit the kids, she can't report any abuse, right?
Still no word here on how this abusive custodial father gained custody, and who enabled that decision.
Dad is identified as DAVID MARTIN.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290275/Bipolar-teen-chained-fathers-basement-gained-50lbs-thriving-just-month-rescue.html#.UTofxkHxyuI.facebook
Bipolar teen found chained up in father's basement has gained 50lbs and is thriving just one month after rescue
By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED:10:57 EST, 8 March 2013| UPDATED:11:55 EST, 8 March 2013
A 17-year-old Missouri boy who was found chained to a pole in his parents' basement four weeks ago weighing just over 100lbs is doing much better these days.
The teenager boasted to a Clay County judge Thursday that he has put on 50lbs, planned to play football and was taking guitar lessons.
The bipolar 17-year-old, whose name is not been revealed due to his age, was discovered February 4 curled in a fetal position and handcuffed to a steel pole inside a Kansas City home after a neighbor contacted social services.
The boy's father, David Martin, 42, and 41-year-old stepmother, Pamela Martin, were arrested and charged with felony restraint and child abuse.
During the hearing this week, the boy's biological mother said that she would like to take her son home, but the judge ordered that he remain in foster care pending a home study to determine if the woman's residence is suitable for the boy to live in, the Kansas City Starreported..
According to her lawyer, the teen's birthmother was unaware of what was happening to her son at her ex-husband's townhouse and would have sought custody had she known.
David Martin, who continues to be held on $50,000 bond along with his second wife, appeared at the hearing Thursday but did not speak.
Meanwhile, the teen at the center of the case told Judge Elizabeth Davis that he is doing well, adding that nowadays he tips the scales at 151lbs.
The high school sophomore went on to say that he is doing weight running and hopes to join the wrestling team and the football team as a running back.
The boy is expected to be back in court May 30 for his next progress report.
Following his rescue in early February, the boy told investigators he had been kept in the basement since his father pulled him out of school in September. Court documents say the boy's weight had dropped from 130lbs to 103lbs.
According to court documents, the Martins told police that the victim is bi-polar and also suffers from attention deficit disorder.
The teen's father said the family could no longer afford to buy medications for the 17-year-old and had run out of options to keep a handle on the boy. Police have not released the names of anyone involved in the case. The teen was placed in the custody of child services. The adults were also living in the home at the time.
Mr Martin added that they had tied him to the pole in order to keep him from running away, and that the restraint only lasted for three weeks.
According to a police report, an officer and social worker arrived in the family's home last week after getting a tip from neighbor Crystal Anderson.
The Kansas City Star reported that while they were inside the residence in the 400 block of North Wheeling Avenue, Mrs Martin told the officer her son was asleep in his basement bedroom.
When they entered the basement, they heard someone cry out: 'I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything.'
Officer Jonathan Stone wrote in the report: 'I then observed a thin frail looking male getting out of the fetal position on the concrete floor around a steel support pole.
'The teen was handcuffed to the pole and looked very thin for his height, with a sunken face and eyes that "had a look of desperation."'
He was curled in a fetal position on the cold concrete floor dressed in dirty jeans, a dirty shirt and socks. He continually asked authorities for his jacket and shoes and appeared cold.
After police freed the shivering boy from the manacles and helped him calm down, he said he had been kept in the basement since September, when his father removed him from school.
He said he was initially 'just locked in the basement, but was not fed much.'
The child was allowed to shower once in four weeks, had been denied the use of bathroom for 10-hour stretches and had sores on both his wrists from the handcuffs, according to court documents.
The 17-year-old told police that in October, he managed to get out of the basement and get food, which angered his father, who tried handcuffing both his hands to a bed frame in a 'cross position, but his arms were not long enough.' When police entered the basement of the home, they heard someone cry out: 'I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything'
The teen said he managed to take apart the bed in November and used a bed rail to break open the door, but he didn't manage to find anything edible.
The boy told police that this time, David Martin removed the bed from the basement and handcuffed him to the pole.
He told police that his father would wake him each day at 4am to use the bathroom and give him a packet of dried oatmeal.
In the afternoon, he would again be allowed to use the bathroom and would get a packet of Ramen noodles to eat.
Later, he would get two bologna sandwiches and a glass of water before being locked up for the night.
Another adult in the home told police that the teen was 'locked downstairs because in December they let him upstairs and he ate almost an entire bowl of fruit at one time.'
Pamela Martin told police her stepson was allowed to eat dinner with the family and returned to the basement at bedtime.
The woman also said she didn't remove the handcuffs because the teen was 'verbally abusive and would try to kick her.'
Authorities took the teen to a local hospital for treatment. He was immediately placed into the custody of the Clay County Children’s Division. A two-year-old grandson in the home is also in state custody.
Since being sprung from his makeshift jail, the 17-year-old boy has sent a series of messages to the neighbor who led police the the basement where he was being kept.
The boy, whom neighbors have described as childlike, shared with Crystal Anderson how excited he is to be back in school and spoke of dreams to play football, KSNreported.
One message read: 'Thank you for save [sic] me from starving,' the teen wrote in gratitude.
Still no word here on how this abusive custodial father gained custody, and who enabled that decision.
Dad is identified as DAVID MARTIN.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290275/Bipolar-teen-chained-fathers-basement-gained-50lbs-thriving-just-month-rescue.html#.UTofxkHxyuI.facebook
Bipolar teen found chained up in father's basement has gained 50lbs and is thriving just one month after rescue
By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED:10:57 EST, 8 March 2013| UPDATED:11:55 EST, 8 March 2013
A 17-year-old Missouri boy who was found chained to a pole in his parents' basement four weeks ago weighing just over 100lbs is doing much better these days.
The teenager boasted to a Clay County judge Thursday that he has put on 50lbs, planned to play football and was taking guitar lessons.
The bipolar 17-year-old, whose name is not been revealed due to his age, was discovered February 4 curled in a fetal position and handcuffed to a steel pole inside a Kansas City home after a neighbor contacted social services.
The boy's father, David Martin, 42, and 41-year-old stepmother, Pamela Martin, were arrested and charged with felony restraint and child abuse.
During the hearing this week, the boy's biological mother said that she would like to take her son home, but the judge ordered that he remain in foster care pending a home study to determine if the woman's residence is suitable for the boy to live in, the Kansas City Starreported..
According to her lawyer, the teen's birthmother was unaware of what was happening to her son at her ex-husband's townhouse and would have sought custody had she known.
David Martin, who continues to be held on $50,000 bond along with his second wife, appeared at the hearing Thursday but did not speak.
Meanwhile, the teen at the center of the case told Judge Elizabeth Davis that he is doing well, adding that nowadays he tips the scales at 151lbs.
The high school sophomore went on to say that he is doing weight running and hopes to join the wrestling team and the football team as a running back.
The boy is expected to be back in court May 30 for his next progress report.
Following his rescue in early February, the boy told investigators he had been kept in the basement since his father pulled him out of school in September. Court documents say the boy's weight had dropped from 130lbs to 103lbs.
According to court documents, the Martins told police that the victim is bi-polar and also suffers from attention deficit disorder.
The teen's father said the family could no longer afford to buy medications for the 17-year-old and had run out of options to keep a handle on the boy. Police have not released the names of anyone involved in the case. The teen was placed in the custody of child services. The adults were also living in the home at the time.
Mr Martin added that they had tied him to the pole in order to keep him from running away, and that the restraint only lasted for three weeks.
According to a police report, an officer and social worker arrived in the family's home last week after getting a tip from neighbor Crystal Anderson.
The Kansas City Star reported that while they were inside the residence in the 400 block of North Wheeling Avenue, Mrs Martin told the officer her son was asleep in his basement bedroom.
When they entered the basement, they heard someone cry out: 'I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything.'
Officer Jonathan Stone wrote in the report: 'I then observed a thin frail looking male getting out of the fetal position on the concrete floor around a steel support pole.
'The teen was handcuffed to the pole and looked very thin for his height, with a sunken face and eyes that "had a look of desperation."'
He was curled in a fetal position on the cold concrete floor dressed in dirty jeans, a dirty shirt and socks. He continually asked authorities for his jacket and shoes and appeared cold.
After police freed the shivering boy from the manacles and helped him calm down, he said he had been kept in the basement since September, when his father removed him from school.
He said he was initially 'just locked in the basement, but was not fed much.'
The child was allowed to shower once in four weeks, had been denied the use of bathroom for 10-hour stretches and had sores on both his wrists from the handcuffs, according to court documents.
The 17-year-old told police that in October, he managed to get out of the basement and get food, which angered his father, who tried handcuffing both his hands to a bed frame in a 'cross position, but his arms were not long enough.' When police entered the basement of the home, they heard someone cry out: 'I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything'
The teen said he managed to take apart the bed in November and used a bed rail to break open the door, but he didn't manage to find anything edible.
The boy told police that this time, David Martin removed the bed from the basement and handcuffed him to the pole.
He told police that his father would wake him each day at 4am to use the bathroom and give him a packet of dried oatmeal.
In the afternoon, he would again be allowed to use the bathroom and would get a packet of Ramen noodles to eat.
Later, he would get two bologna sandwiches and a glass of water before being locked up for the night.
Another adult in the home told police that the teen was 'locked downstairs because in December they let him upstairs and he ate almost an entire bowl of fruit at one time.'
Pamela Martin told police her stepson was allowed to eat dinner with the family and returned to the basement at bedtime.
The woman also said she didn't remove the handcuffs because the teen was 'verbally abusive and would try to kick her.'
Authorities took the teen to a local hospital for treatment. He was immediately placed into the custody of the Clay County Children’s Division. A two-year-old grandson in the home is also in state custody.
Since being sprung from his makeshift jail, the 17-year-old boy has sent a series of messages to the neighbor who led police the the basement where he was being kept.
The boy, whom neighbors have described as childlike, shared with Crystal Anderson how excited he is to be back in school and spoke of dreams to play football, KSNreported.
One message read: 'Thank you for save [sic] me from starving,' the teen wrote in gratitude.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Dad with joint custody (and full control over daughter's education) convicted of execution-style murder of mom, her father during custody exchange (Santa Ana, California)
Who says abuser daddies don't get their rights?
Dad ROBERT ALLAN LEHMANN continued to shoot his ex-wife and her father, even as they tried to flee from the scene of the custody exchange (at DAD'S HOME). He then murdered them execution-style by shooting them in the back of the head. And this was after this ruthless, cold-blooded killer had waited in ambush for their arrival.
What is not answered here, is what judge(s) or assorted court personnel forced this mother and her father into such a dangerous situation with such a dangerous man. And boy, was this dude indulged every step of the way. Let's review.
1) The parents divorced less than one year after the baby was born, which just by itself, suggests something serious was going on with Daddy. Nevertheless, he still gets JOINT CUSTODY of an INFANT.
2) Of course, for a serious abuser, joint custody is never enough power and control. So he fights for control of the girl's education, AND HE WINS. Then he wants to put the girl in an expensive alternative education program, in another town, and force her mother to pay for it. (Of course!) He drags Mom into court OVER 20 TIMES, a classic case of domestic violence by proxy if I ever saw one.
3) After all of Daddy's BS, he was afraid he had "lost" custody (i.e. his iron-grip control over his ex-wife through her child). So naturally, like many violent abusers, he made her pay for it by taking her life. As a result, two children are left without their mother. A new husband is left without his wife. And that's not even going into the loss of this brave grandfather, who accompanied his daughter to this child custody exchange fully knowing, no doubt, that his ex-son-in-law was a dangerous psychopath.
This psycho father should have been cut out of the story from day one. Not have his sh** coddled at every step of the way, which just encouraged his narcissism and sense of entitlement.
When are mothers and their children going to get THEIR RIGHTS?
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/09/28/costa-mesa-man-37-gets-life-for-fatally-shooting-ex-wife-her-father/
Costa Mesa Man, 37, Gets Life For Fatally Shooting Ex-Wife, Her Father
September 28, 2012 4:12 PM
SANTA ANA (CBS) — A Costa Mesa man who gunned down his ex-wife and her father execution-style was convicted Friday of first-degree murder.
Robert Allan Lehmann, 37, shook his head and muttered to himself when he heard the jury’s verdict, which followed about two hours of deliberations, Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said.
“We had an excellent jury and they did the right thing,” the prosecutor said.
Lehmann shot and killed the pair after drawn out court hearings involving the educational needs of his daughter, who has special need.
The panel found true special circumstance allegations of lying in wait — which applied only to his ex-wife — and multiple murders, Murphy said. Lehmann will be sentenced to life in prison without parole on Nov. 2.
Defense attorney Jeremy Goldman acknowledged in his opening statement that his client shot and killed the victims, but said Lehmann was in a “sleepwalking state.”
Goldman alleged Lehmann had taken too much anti-anxiety medication and downed the drugs with beer. Goldman argued that his client should be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, not first-degree murder, for killing 32-year-old Emily Ford and 62-year-old Russell Ford outside the defendant’s home in Costa Mesa on May 3, 2011.
Lehmann and his ex-wife met in February 2003 and wed when she got pregnant with their daughter, Amanda. The marriage lasted less than a year.
The two shared custody of their child, who was diagnosed with Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome, a rare disorder that affects development of blood vessels and can sometimes lead to one limb being larger than the other, Murphy said. She was later diagnosed with ADHD, the prosecutor said.
Disputes arose between the parents over their daughter’s education, Murphy said, with Amanda’s mother wanting her to be “mainstreamed” as much as possible, and Lehmann advocating special education classes. The schooling disagreement led the parents to family court about 20 times, he said.
According to Goldman, his client’s child was in “great risk of being held back” after kindergarten, so Lehmann “spent tens of thousands of dollars” on attorneys and experts and was granted full control over decisions about the girl’s education in September 2010.
Lehmann decided that his daughter should be taken out of a public school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and placed in a child development center at UC Irvine. Another dispute followed over who would pay for the schooling.
His ex-wife ultimately told UCI officials — who required both parents to be on board — that she had changed her mind altogether, Goldman said, prompting Lehmann to file a court order on his own because he could no longer afford an attorney.
The shooting happened hours after a court hearing stemming from the schooling dispute.
When Lehmann arrived home, he sent his wife of two years out with his daughter to a local Golden Spoon frozen yogurt shop and got a gun out of a safe in his home, Murphy said. When Emily Ford and her father arrived to pick up the girl, Lehmann opened fire on his ex-wife at his front door, the prosecutor said.
Emily Ford, who had gotten remarried and had a new baby, stumbled back and was then shot in the back as she tried to run away, Murphy said. The defendant subsequently turned the gun on his former father-in-law, shooting him in the arm and then several times in the back when he tried to flee, Murphy said.
The defendant then reloaded the weapon and shot the victims in the back of the head, execution-style, the prosecutor said. A “mellow” Lehmann then called authorities and had a “casual conversation with the 911 operator,” Murphy said.
“He sounds a little bit tired” on the call, Murphy said, adding Lehmann also waited for police to arrive.
Goldman countered that Lehmann was in a fog from taking the anti-anxiety medication throughout the day, thought he had lost custody of his daughter and went home and took “a great deal” more of the drug, Goldman said.
Lehmann testified he did not remember anything about the shootings because he had blacked out, Murphy said.
Dad ROBERT ALLAN LEHMANN continued to shoot his ex-wife and her father, even as they tried to flee from the scene of the custody exchange (at DAD'S HOME). He then murdered them execution-style by shooting them in the back of the head. And this was after this ruthless, cold-blooded killer had waited in ambush for their arrival.
What is not answered here, is what judge(s) or assorted court personnel forced this mother and her father into such a dangerous situation with such a dangerous man. And boy, was this dude indulged every step of the way. Let's review.
1) The parents divorced less than one year after the baby was born, which just by itself, suggests something serious was going on with Daddy. Nevertheless, he still gets JOINT CUSTODY of an INFANT.
2) Of course, for a serious abuser, joint custody is never enough power and control. So he fights for control of the girl's education, AND HE WINS. Then he wants to put the girl in an expensive alternative education program, in another town, and force her mother to pay for it. (Of course!) He drags Mom into court OVER 20 TIMES, a classic case of domestic violence by proxy if I ever saw one.
3) After all of Daddy's BS, he was afraid he had "lost" custody (i.e. his iron-grip control over his ex-wife through her child). So naturally, like many violent abusers, he made her pay for it by taking her life. As a result, two children are left without their mother. A new husband is left without his wife. And that's not even going into the loss of this brave grandfather, who accompanied his daughter to this child custody exchange fully knowing, no doubt, that his ex-son-in-law was a dangerous psychopath.
This psycho father should have been cut out of the story from day one. Not have his sh** coddled at every step of the way, which just encouraged his narcissism and sense of entitlement.
When are mothers and their children going to get THEIR RIGHTS?
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/09/28/costa-mesa-man-37-gets-life-for-fatally-shooting-ex-wife-her-father/
Costa Mesa Man, 37, Gets Life For Fatally Shooting Ex-Wife, Her Father
September 28, 2012 4:12 PM
SANTA ANA (CBS) — A Costa Mesa man who gunned down his ex-wife and her father execution-style was convicted Friday of first-degree murder.
Robert Allan Lehmann, 37, shook his head and muttered to himself when he heard the jury’s verdict, which followed about two hours of deliberations, Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said.
“We had an excellent jury and they did the right thing,” the prosecutor said.
Lehmann shot and killed the pair after drawn out court hearings involving the educational needs of his daughter, who has special need.
The panel found true special circumstance allegations of lying in wait — which applied only to his ex-wife — and multiple murders, Murphy said. Lehmann will be sentenced to life in prison without parole on Nov. 2.
Defense attorney Jeremy Goldman acknowledged in his opening statement that his client shot and killed the victims, but said Lehmann was in a “sleepwalking state.”
Goldman alleged Lehmann had taken too much anti-anxiety medication and downed the drugs with beer. Goldman argued that his client should be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, not first-degree murder, for killing 32-year-old Emily Ford and 62-year-old Russell Ford outside the defendant’s home in Costa Mesa on May 3, 2011.
Lehmann and his ex-wife met in February 2003 and wed when she got pregnant with their daughter, Amanda. The marriage lasted less than a year.
The two shared custody of their child, who was diagnosed with Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome, a rare disorder that affects development of blood vessels and can sometimes lead to one limb being larger than the other, Murphy said. She was later diagnosed with ADHD, the prosecutor said.
Disputes arose between the parents over their daughter’s education, Murphy said, with Amanda’s mother wanting her to be “mainstreamed” as much as possible, and Lehmann advocating special education classes. The schooling disagreement led the parents to family court about 20 times, he said.
According to Goldman, his client’s child was in “great risk of being held back” after kindergarten, so Lehmann “spent tens of thousands of dollars” on attorneys and experts and was granted full control over decisions about the girl’s education in September 2010.
Lehmann decided that his daughter should be taken out of a public school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and placed in a child development center at UC Irvine. Another dispute followed over who would pay for the schooling.
His ex-wife ultimately told UCI officials — who required both parents to be on board — that she had changed her mind altogether, Goldman said, prompting Lehmann to file a court order on his own because he could no longer afford an attorney.
The shooting happened hours after a court hearing stemming from the schooling dispute.
When Lehmann arrived home, he sent his wife of two years out with his daughter to a local Golden Spoon frozen yogurt shop and got a gun out of a safe in his home, Murphy said. When Emily Ford and her father arrived to pick up the girl, Lehmann opened fire on his ex-wife at his front door, the prosecutor said.
Emily Ford, who had gotten remarried and had a new baby, stumbled back and was then shot in the back as she tried to run away, Murphy said. The defendant subsequently turned the gun on his former father-in-law, shooting him in the arm and then several times in the back when he tried to flee, Murphy said.
The defendant then reloaded the weapon and shot the victims in the back of the head, execution-style, the prosecutor said. A “mellow” Lehmann then called authorities and had a “casual conversation with the 911 operator,” Murphy said.
“He sounds a little bit tired” on the call, Murphy said, adding Lehmann also waited for police to arrive.
Goldman countered that Lehmann was in a fog from taking the anti-anxiety medication throughout the day, thought he had lost custody of his daughter and went home and took “a great deal” more of the drug, Goldman said.
Lehmann testified he did not remember anything about the shootings because he had blacked out, Murphy said.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Dad charged with 'branding" kids with a soldering gun (Malta)
It wasn't really Daddy's fault that he tortured the kids, see. We can 'splain it. Really! He had ADHD!
What a load of horse patootie. But hey, even though this POS has previous CONVICTIONS for domestic violence, he's still walking around free on bail. Even though research has shown again and again that these dudes are very dangerous when they can reestablish access to their victims.
UNNAMED DAD
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Man-charged-with-branding-children-with-a-soldering-gun-20120905
Man charged with ‘branding’ children with a soldering gun
Court hears how accused repeatedly kicked 14-year-old son in groin with safety shoes, and marked two of his children on the forearm with a soldering gun
A child psychologist noticed a crescent-shaped mark on one of the boy’s and the girl’s forearm, which both said was made by their father using a soldering gun.
Karl Stagno-Navarra
A criminal court yesterday heard how a father in his early 40s would allegedly beat his three children, aged 10, 12 and 14, on a regular basis - sometimes kicking the older son in the groin wearing safety boots; and on some occasions marking the children on the forearm with a soldering gun.
Evidence against the father was brought before Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona, who heard Police Inspectors Louise Calleja and Priscilla Caruana recount the events which led them to arrest him and have him charged with causing grievous bodily harm to his three children.
The name of the accused is withheld on court order.
Inspectors Calleja and Caruana informed the court that they had acted on a report made by officials at Dar Merħba Bik, after a mother sought shelter with her children over repeated domestic violence.
A court appointed expert then read out her report into the findings arising from her interviews with the accused's two sons and a daughter.
Child psychologist Mariella Mangion reported that she noticed a crescent shaped mark on one of the boy's and the girl's forearm, which both said was made by their father using a soldering gun.
While explaining that the children were "highly traumatised" Mangion said that she found the children to be bruised and scratched all over.
The eldest son was found to have a dark blue bruise on his groin after he was allegedly kicked hard by his father wearing safety shoes.
According to Mangion's findings, the children suffered bruising to their rib cage, their upper and lower backs, around their necks and arms.
The father's case was originally brought before the family court, but was subsequently forwarded to the criminal court for prosecution after the children's injuries were considered to be grievous.
The daughter was also reported to have had patches of hair pulled out from her scalp.
The father, who is currently on bail, had previous convictions for domestic violence and had attended therapy for anger management.
He has been ordered to keep away from Dar Merhba Bik and prohibited from approaching his wife and children.
During cross examination, lawyer Arthur Azzopardi argued that during the investigations, nobody had ever diagnosed his client's medical and psychiatric history.
Azzopardi said that the father was a victim of a brutal upbringing by his own father, and also suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He requested that in the next sittings, the court appoint experts to examine his client.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Police: Dad broke baby's arm, ribs for crying while Daddy was trying to play xbox (Salem, Massachusetts)
This whole thing with daddies and their video games is totally out of control. It's like this stuff is crack, especially for the young male mind. Notice that dad JASON MCLAUGHLIN is also charged with assaulting a police officer.
Notice that all it took was for mom to leave the crying baby alone with Daddy while she took a shower. Daddy is blaming a boatload of psychiatric disorders for his actions.
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x611948296/Police-Dad-broke-infants-arm-ribs
April 10, 2012
Police: Dad broke infant's arm, ribs Salem: Baby was crying while father tried to play Xbox
By Julie Manganis Staff writer
The Salem News Tue Apr 10, 2012, 04:00 AM EDT
SALEM — A 23-year-old Salem father tried to kill himself in a police holding cell after confessing Friday to breaking his infant daughter's arm and ribs in two separate incidents of abuse, police said.
Jason McLaughlin is being held without bail, charged with two counts of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injury, as well as a charge of assault and battery on a police officer, one of the Salem patrolmen who tried to remove McLaughlin's clothing after he attempted to use a shirt to commit suicide Friday night, police said.
McLaughlin's 3-month-old daughter was rushed to North Shore Children's Hospital on Friday morning with a broken arm.
McLaughlin, of 1000 Loring Ave., Apt. B53, initially told both the child's mother, who turned 18 last month, and police that he had dozed off while holding the baby and she fell to the floor.
But when questioned further by Salem police Capt. Thomas Griffin and Detective Jack Doyle on Friday afternoon, McLaughlin "burst into tears" and told the investigators, "I did it. I pulled her from her swing, and I felt her arm snap. I broke her arm, but I didn't mean to hurt her. She wouldn't stop crying," according to police.
McLaughlin told investigators that he had arrived home from work around 6 a.m. after an overnight shift at Stop & Shop in Lynn and began playing Xbox while watching the baby, while his girlfriend took a shower.
McLaughlin told police that he tried to quiet the baby by giving her a pacifier, but that she spit it out twice.
That's when he lashed out, grabbing her left arm around the elbow and pulling her from the swing. McLaughlin told police he could feel and hear the baby's arm snap and then saw her arm turn white.
He called the baby's mother out of the shower and told her the story about falling asleep while cradling the child in his arms.
While the child was being treated, doctors looking at X-rays found two broken ribs that were in the process of healing, injuries for which the baby had not received treatment.
McLaughlin admitted that he had squeezed the baby during a prior incident when he became frustrated, though he did not recall the date of that incident, police said. McLaughlin told police that he doesn't handle sleep deprivation well and that he's been diagnosed with and takes medication for bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and "explosive anger."
Later, while in police custody, Lt. Scott Englehardt noticed McLaughlin attempting to tie his shirt around his neck. As other officers attempted to remove his clothing to prevent him from trying to harm himself again, McLaughlin struggled, hitting Patrolman Edward Pierce, who was not injured, according to police.
Prosecutor Jane Prince suggested in a motion that McLaughlin's own admission that he's unable to control his rage indicates that he poses a danger if released.
Judge Robert Brennan ordered McLaughlin held without bail pending a hearing on April 17 to determine dangerousness.
The Department of Children and Families is also investigating.
This is the second time since last fall that a North Shore father has been charged with abusing a child while playing an Xbox game. In October, Richard Elias, 22, of Peabody allegedly confessed to shaking and head-butting his infant daughter because she was crying while he was drinking beer and playing Xbox. The case against Elias is still pending.
Notice that all it took was for mom to leave the crying baby alone with Daddy while she took a shower. Daddy is blaming a boatload of psychiatric disorders for his actions.
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x611948296/Police-Dad-broke-infants-arm-ribs
April 10, 2012
Police: Dad broke infant's arm, ribs Salem: Baby was crying while father tried to play Xbox
By Julie Manganis Staff writer
The Salem News Tue Apr 10, 2012, 04:00 AM EDT
SALEM — A 23-year-old Salem father tried to kill himself in a police holding cell after confessing Friday to breaking his infant daughter's arm and ribs in two separate incidents of abuse, police said.
Jason McLaughlin is being held without bail, charged with two counts of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injury, as well as a charge of assault and battery on a police officer, one of the Salem patrolmen who tried to remove McLaughlin's clothing after he attempted to use a shirt to commit suicide Friday night, police said.
McLaughlin's 3-month-old daughter was rushed to North Shore Children's Hospital on Friday morning with a broken arm.
McLaughlin, of 1000 Loring Ave., Apt. B53, initially told both the child's mother, who turned 18 last month, and police that he had dozed off while holding the baby and she fell to the floor.
But when questioned further by Salem police Capt. Thomas Griffin and Detective Jack Doyle on Friday afternoon, McLaughlin "burst into tears" and told the investigators, "I did it. I pulled her from her swing, and I felt her arm snap. I broke her arm, but I didn't mean to hurt her. She wouldn't stop crying," according to police.
McLaughlin told investigators that he had arrived home from work around 6 a.m. after an overnight shift at Stop & Shop in Lynn and began playing Xbox while watching the baby, while his girlfriend took a shower.
McLaughlin told police that he tried to quiet the baby by giving her a pacifier, but that she spit it out twice.
That's when he lashed out, grabbing her left arm around the elbow and pulling her from the swing. McLaughlin told police he could feel and hear the baby's arm snap and then saw her arm turn white.
He called the baby's mother out of the shower and told her the story about falling asleep while cradling the child in his arms.
While the child was being treated, doctors looking at X-rays found two broken ribs that were in the process of healing, injuries for which the baby had not received treatment.
McLaughlin admitted that he had squeezed the baby during a prior incident when he became frustrated, though he did not recall the date of that incident, police said. McLaughlin told police that he doesn't handle sleep deprivation well and that he's been diagnosed with and takes medication for bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and "explosive anger."
Later, while in police custody, Lt. Scott Englehardt noticed McLaughlin attempting to tie his shirt around his neck. As other officers attempted to remove his clothing to prevent him from trying to harm himself again, McLaughlin struggled, hitting Patrolman Edward Pierce, who was not injured, according to police.
Prosecutor Jane Prince suggested in a motion that McLaughlin's own admission that he's unable to control his rage indicates that he poses a danger if released.
Judge Robert Brennan ordered McLaughlin held without bail pending a hearing on April 17 to determine dangerousness.
The Department of Children and Families is also investigating.
This is the second time since last fall that a North Shore father has been charged with abusing a child while playing an Xbox game. In October, Richard Elias, 22, of Peabody allegedly confessed to shaking and head-butting his infant daughter because she was crying while he was drinking beer and playing Xbox. The case against Elias is still pending.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
"Frustrated" dad charged with killing 2-week-old son (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
We all want to be nice and politically correct and all. But we have to stop feeling sorry for subfunctional men with all the labels ("special needs," ADHD, bi-polar) and hope that somehow--with no evidence to speak of--they'll make good fathers. Or that it's safe to leave a newborn infant with these "short-tempered" or easily "frustrated" types. It's not even clear here that dad GLENN ROSS was employed--or even employable at anything but the most minimal paying tasks. And now he's been arrested for assaulting and killing his newborn son.
http://www.wwmt.com/news/infant-1402068-young-kalamazoo.html
UPDATED: Young father accused of fatally shaking his infant son
February 22, 2012 10:04 PM
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A Kalamazoo mother is grieving the loss of her infant son and her boyfriend is in jail, accused of killing the child.
The child died shortly after 9:00 pm Wednesday night.
Bridgette Moore says her long-time boyfriend and father of the child, 22-year-old Glenn Ross, shook the two-week-old child on Tuesday.
Kalamazoo Public Safety officials received a 911 call shortly after 12 noon, for a report of the baby not breathing in the 800 block of Burrell Avenue. Detectives immediately made contact with the residents and initiated life saving efforts to the 13-day-old infant until rescue arrived.
The infant had been in intensive care, but passed away on Wednesday night.
Newschannel 3 was just about to meet with Moore to talk about the heart-rending situation when we learned she had been called in to the PICU once again.
The infant was pronounced dead just after 9:00 pm. The father, Glenn Ross has been arrested on child abuse charges. Newschannel 3 spoke to Ross' parents about the situation on Wednesday night.
It all started at Glenn Ross' parents home on Burrell Street in Kalamazoo on Tuesday morning.
“Glenn was left alone with the baby,” said Glenn's mother Rebecca Ross.
Rebecca says Glenn was in special needs classes all through school.
“He actually does have some limitations mentally?” asked Newschannel 3's Jared Werksma.
“Yes and he's under psychiatric care,” said Rebecca.
“Why is that?”
“For his bi-polar and his ADHD among other things,” said Rebecca.
Rebecca says her son has trouble in certain situations, gets frustrated easily and has a short temper. She says that's one reason her son and Moore didn't keep their first child.
“Why did they give the first child up for adoption?” asked Jared Werksma.
“They weren't ready to settle down,” said Rebecca. “With this one Glenn found out it was a boy and he wanted his son.”
However, Rebecca says on Tuesday morning, fatherhood overwhelmed Glenn.
“He got frustrated and shook the baby,” said Rebecca.
Rebecca says Glenn knew something was wrong with his son afterward, but wasn't sure what. So he lay the baby down in its crib.
Rebecca says when the child's mother showed up and heard what happened, she called for an ambulance, and police.
“Do you think there's any part of your son that did this intentionally?” asked Newschannel 3's Jared Werksma.
“Oh hell no, hell no,” said Rebecca.
“Is there anything else you want to say about your son or this situation?”
“He's a good boy,” said Rebecca.
Glenn Ross is currently being held in the Kalamazoo County Jail on child abuse charges. He has not been arraigned. Sources tell Newschannel 3 that officials were waiting to see if the child died so they could charge him appropriately.
Ross is expected to be arraigned on Thursday morning. Newschannel 3 will keep an eye on this case and keep you updated.
http://www.wwmt.com/news/infant-1402068-young-kalamazoo.html
UPDATED: Young father accused of fatally shaking his infant son
February 22, 2012 10:04 PM
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A Kalamazoo mother is grieving the loss of her infant son and her boyfriend is in jail, accused of killing the child.
The child died shortly after 9:00 pm Wednesday night.
Bridgette Moore says her long-time boyfriend and father of the child, 22-year-old Glenn Ross, shook the two-week-old child on Tuesday.
Kalamazoo Public Safety officials received a 911 call shortly after 12 noon, for a report of the baby not breathing in the 800 block of Burrell Avenue. Detectives immediately made contact with the residents and initiated life saving efforts to the 13-day-old infant until rescue arrived.
The infant had been in intensive care, but passed away on Wednesday night.
Newschannel 3 was just about to meet with Moore to talk about the heart-rending situation when we learned she had been called in to the PICU once again.
The infant was pronounced dead just after 9:00 pm. The father, Glenn Ross has been arrested on child abuse charges. Newschannel 3 spoke to Ross' parents about the situation on Wednesday night.
It all started at Glenn Ross' parents home on Burrell Street in Kalamazoo on Tuesday morning.
“Glenn was left alone with the baby,” said Glenn's mother Rebecca Ross.
Rebecca says Glenn was in special needs classes all through school.
“He actually does have some limitations mentally?” asked Newschannel 3's Jared Werksma.
“Yes and he's under psychiatric care,” said Rebecca.
“Why is that?”
“For his bi-polar and his ADHD among other things,” said Rebecca.
Rebecca says her son has trouble in certain situations, gets frustrated easily and has a short temper. She says that's one reason her son and Moore didn't keep their first child.
“Why did they give the first child up for adoption?” asked Jared Werksma.
“They weren't ready to settle down,” said Rebecca. “With this one Glenn found out it was a boy and he wanted his son.”
However, Rebecca says on Tuesday morning, fatherhood overwhelmed Glenn.
“He got frustrated and shook the baby,” said Rebecca.
Rebecca says Glenn knew something was wrong with his son afterward, but wasn't sure what. So he lay the baby down in its crib.
Rebecca says when the child's mother showed up and heard what happened, she called for an ambulance, and police.
“Do you think there's any part of your son that did this intentionally?” asked Newschannel 3's Jared Werksma.
“Oh hell no, hell no,” said Rebecca.
“Is there anything else you want to say about your son or this situation?”
“He's a good boy,” said Rebecca.
Glenn Ross is currently being held in the Kalamazoo County Jail on child abuse charges. He has not been arraigned. Sources tell Newschannel 3 that officials were waiting to see if the child died so they could charge him appropriately.
Ross is expected to be arraigned on Thursday morning. Newschannel 3 will keep an eye on this case and keep you updated.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Custodial dad admits assaulting disabled son (Bristol, England)
Once again, it is clear if you read carefully that UNNAMED DAD is custodial. As usual, why this abuser had custody is not explained. However, it is clear that the exceedingly father-friendly social workers think this self-confessed batterer is just wonderful. They blame "frustration," the small apartment they live in, sun spots, you name it. It's not Daddy's fault! And they think it's "best" that this boy remain with his violent father because he has a "good character." WTF? Massive Daddy coddling! Once again, we see how daddies can do no wrong in the eyes of these social service nitwits. He has a "good character" despite kicking, punching, smacking, and headbutting a disabled kid? Is he "good" because he didn't succeed in killing him? Just where is the evidence of this "good character"? Oh right. There isn't any.
You would never see a single mother who treated her disabled child is this way described as having a "good character." Just doesn't happen.
Of course, there is not one word here on the boy's mother or what happened to her. Same old erasures, silences we often see in these stories.
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Father-admits-assaulting-disabled-son/story-14972184-detail/story.html
Father admits assaulting his disabled son
Thursday, January 19, 2012 Bristol Evening Post
A FATHER assaulted his disabled teenage son because he repeatedly played songs on his iPhone at high volume in their one-bedroom flat.
The father pleaded guilty at Bristol Magistrates' Court to twice assaulting his son by beating at their North Bristol home last year.
A court order was put in place by magistrates yesterday in order to protect the identity of the child.
Laura Opie, prosecuting, said: "The victim in this case has a series of health issues and disabilities.
"He has mild cerebral palsy, moderate learning difficulties and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
"On September 30 he told the head teacher at his special educational needs school that his dad had assaulted him the previous evening.
"He said he had done that by smacking him in the face and by head butting him. Examinations confirmed a lump to his head.
"On October 4 he said he had been hit on the wrist where there was redness and swelling.
"In a later statement regarding the first offence he said he was headbutted and pinned down on the sofa and had been punched and kicked.
"He said his father was angry with him for being naughty but that he hadn't done anything naughty.
"His father attended the police station voluntarily and admitted he and his son had a violent relationship and that they would wind each other up because of the lack of space.
"He added that his son would play the same songs on his iPhone over and over again at high volume.
"He admitted the headbutt but described it more as pushing his son away with his head."
Miss Opie said Social Services had assessed the situation and think it best the boy remains with his father.
Zoe Lash, defending, said: "There are a number of behavioural issues and he has found it very difficult to cope," Miss Lash said.
"He accepts that he has not always behaved appropriately in situations that have occurred.
"Clearly one of the main problems has been the lack of space for the two of them. It would be fraught between a father and son in a normal situation and this is not a normal situation."
She said the father was previously of good character.
Magistrates adjourned the case for a probation report and the man will be sentenced next month.
You would never see a single mother who treated her disabled child is this way described as having a "good character." Just doesn't happen.
Of course, there is not one word here on the boy's mother or what happened to her. Same old erasures, silences we often see in these stories.
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Father-admits-assaulting-disabled-son/story-14972184-detail/story.html
Father admits assaulting his disabled son
Thursday, January 19, 2012 Bristol Evening Post
A FATHER assaulted his disabled teenage son because he repeatedly played songs on his iPhone at high volume in their one-bedroom flat.
The father pleaded guilty at Bristol Magistrates' Court to twice assaulting his son by beating at their North Bristol home last year.
A court order was put in place by magistrates yesterday in order to protect the identity of the child.
Laura Opie, prosecuting, said: "The victim in this case has a series of health issues and disabilities.
"He has mild cerebral palsy, moderate learning difficulties and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
"On September 30 he told the head teacher at his special educational needs school that his dad had assaulted him the previous evening.
"He said he had done that by smacking him in the face and by head butting him. Examinations confirmed a lump to his head.
"On October 4 he said he had been hit on the wrist where there was redness and swelling.
"In a later statement regarding the first offence he said he was headbutted and pinned down on the sofa and had been punched and kicked.
"He said his father was angry with him for being naughty but that he hadn't done anything naughty.
"His father attended the police station voluntarily and admitted he and his son had a violent relationship and that they would wind each other up because of the lack of space.
"He added that his son would play the same songs on his iPhone over and over again at high volume.
"He admitted the headbutt but described it more as pushing his son away with his head."
Miss Opie said Social Services had assessed the situation and think it best the boy remains with his father.
Zoe Lash, defending, said: "There are a number of behavioural issues and he has found it very difficult to cope," Miss Lash said.
"He accepts that he has not always behaved appropriately in situations that have occurred.
"Clearly one of the main problems has been the lack of space for the two of them. It would be fraught between a father and son in a normal situation and this is not a normal situation."
She said the father was previously of good character.
Magistrates adjourned the case for a probation report and the man will be sentenced next month.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Police: Dad says he punched 1-month-old son to stop him from crying; charged with attempted murder (Fort Pierce, Florida)
Hold it! Daddy MIKEY MARTINEZ can 'splain everything! He has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) see, and that's why he hit the baby several times in the head. And then dunked the baby's head under cold water. Poor Daddy with his ultra-sensitive nerves just couldn't stand the crying!
The baby has two skull fractures--in addition to pneumonia.
http://www.myhometownnews.net/index.php?id=85660
Father accused of abusing son
Posted: 2011 Oct 07 - 02:05
By Jay Meisel
FORT PIERCE - A father told police that he punched his 1-month old son several times to get the infant to stop crying, according to an arrest affidavit.
The father, Mikey Martinez, 20, 345 E. Weatherbee Road, Lot 96, Fort Pierce, was arrested Sept. 28 by the Fort Pierce Police Department and charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
Information on the condition of the infant, who was sent to St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in West Palm Beach, was not available.
An initial examination at St. Lucie Medical Center showed the child had several bruises on the side of his head, two skull fractures and bleeding on the brain, besides suffering from pneumonia, the arrest affidavit said.
Police arrested the father after the mother told authorities that he had "hit the infant several times in the head," the report said. "The mother also explained that the defendant held the infant's head underneath cold running water in an attempt to get the child to stop crying," the report said.
When arrested, Mr. Martinez, "immediately began to cry and stated, 'I didn't mean to, I have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and it's my first baby," the arrest affidavit stated.
During a subsequent interview, Mr. Martinez admitted that he struck "the infant with a closed fist on three occasions ... ," the report said.
The father told authorities that he made several attempts to comfort the child, who would still not stop crying, the report said.
"After hours of the crying, the defendant stated that he removed the infant from his crib, took him into the living room and placed his son on his chest," the report said. "When this did not stop the infant from crying, the defendant explained that he hit the child with a closed fist on the top of the head. The defendant then went on to show me how he clinched his fist and used it like a hammer to make a downward strike on the top of his infant's head."
The father told police that he knew he was hitting child hard enough to kill him, during the first hit and subsequent ones over a period of several hours, the report said.
It was only after striking the child the third time that the father decided to seek medical care for the infant, the arrest affidavit said.
The baby has two skull fractures--in addition to pneumonia.
http://www.myhometownnews.net/index.php?id=85660
Father accused of abusing son
Posted: 2011 Oct 07 - 02:05
By Jay Meisel
FORT PIERCE - A father told police that he punched his 1-month old son several times to get the infant to stop crying, according to an arrest affidavit.
The father, Mikey Martinez, 20, 345 E. Weatherbee Road, Lot 96, Fort Pierce, was arrested Sept. 28 by the Fort Pierce Police Department and charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
Information on the condition of the infant, who was sent to St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in West Palm Beach, was not available.
An initial examination at St. Lucie Medical Center showed the child had several bruises on the side of his head, two skull fractures and bleeding on the brain, besides suffering from pneumonia, the arrest affidavit said.
Police arrested the father after the mother told authorities that he had "hit the infant several times in the head," the report said. "The mother also explained that the defendant held the infant's head underneath cold running water in an attempt to get the child to stop crying," the report said.
When arrested, Mr. Martinez, "immediately began to cry and stated, 'I didn't mean to, I have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and it's my first baby," the arrest affidavit stated.
During a subsequent interview, Mr. Martinez admitted that he struck "the infant with a closed fist on three occasions ... ," the report said.
The father told authorities that he made several attempts to comfort the child, who would still not stop crying, the report said.
"After hours of the crying, the defendant stated that he removed the infant from his crib, took him into the living room and placed his son on his chest," the report said. "When this did not stop the infant from crying, the defendant explained that he hit the child with a closed fist on the top of the head. The defendant then went on to show me how he clinched his fist and used it like a hammer to make a downward strike on the top of his infant's head."
The father told police that he knew he was hitting child hard enough to kill him, during the first hit and subsequent ones over a period of several hours, the report said.
It was only after striking the child the third time that the father decided to seek medical care for the infant, the arrest affidavit said.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Dad who injured 10-week-old daughter sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison; girl faces lifelong disabilities (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
Dad JAMES VANDERHAM will serve just a little over 6 years in prison, while his daughter faces a lifetime of serious mental and physical disabilities. Notice all the excuses for Daddy. He was young, he had ADHD, wasn't the sharpest blade in the razer. But he was apparently shrewd enough to lie to the authorities about what had happened. (Meanwhile, moms with serious psychotic illnesses are routinely blamed for their actions.) Daddy had been babysitting for only 90 MINUTES when he attacked the baby.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Edmonton+father+shook+injured+baby+sentenced+years+prison/5013040/story.html
Edmonton father who shook, injured baby sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison
By Alexandra Zabjek, edmontonjournal.com June 27, 2011
EDMONTON — As the adults in the courtroom spent hours Monday discussing prison sentences, three-year-old Taelyr Waluk’s head dipped toward her chest and the sound of her laboured breathing sometimes rose above their voices.
She is the toddler at the centre of a court case that saw her father sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison for shaking and choking her with such force she has been left with lifelong mental and physical disabilities.
Taelyr can’t hold her head up, she can’t eat, she has chronic lung problems and she is never expected to be able to understand discussions such as the one that took place in court.
“Some people wish for a million dollars, I just wish my granddaughter could hold up her head so she could swallow,” her grandmother, Brenda Waluk, said in her victim impact statement read during the sentencing hearing for James Vanderham.
It has been three years since the spring morning that Vanderham shook his 10-week-old daughter so hard that she was taken to hospital in a comatose state. Doctors did not expect her to live.
Vanderham pleaded guilty last year to aggravated assault.
During his sentencing hearing, defence lawyer Walter Raponi said Vanderham had been an immature, 20-year-old who acted in frustration when left alone with his daughter for the first time.
“He’s probably the poster child for an unskilled parent,” Walter Raponi said.
He wanted a prison sentence of two to four years, saying his client’s youth, low IQ, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder should be considered in sentencing.
Vanderham addressed the courtroom, half-filled with his family and supporters, and apologized to his daughter. He said he loves her and hopes to see her again.
“I know I’ve failed you as a father....I can never apologize enough to you or all the people this has effected.”
Crown prosecutor Tania Holland suggested a sentence of eight to 10 year.
Vanderham tried to minimize his actions in interviews with a psychiatrist when he denied “choking” his child, instead saying he merely placed one finger on her vocal cords to stop her from crying, she said.
“He was in the ultimate position of trust toward this young baby.”
Holland said the assault occurred in the 90 minutes he had been left alone with his daughter, while his then-girlfriend went out to get asthma medication. The couple had just moved into a house.
Holland said Vanderham initially misled police and medical professionals about what happened to his daughter.
It was at the end of several hours of questioning that he admitted to shaking and choking Taelyr to stop her crying. He said she then fell out of his arms and hit the floor.
Taelyr now lives in Sherwood Park with her mother and maternal grandparents. Her mother, Hailey Waluk, told court she’ll forever feel guilty for leaving her infant daughter alone with Vanderham. She recalled the painful decision she and her family made to take Taelyr off life support after nine days of intense treatment.
Doctors expected the child to live for 30 seconds after being removed from the machines. Instead, she chose to live Taelyr’s family said.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Stephen Hillier said Taelyr Waluk “is special, she is her unique self. But she is not alone
“We owe it to Taelyr and others to identify and implement every strategy possible to reduce the risk that this happens again.”
Outside court, Hailey Waluk said she didn’t think her daughter will ever get justice. “She’ll have to live with this for the rest of her life.”
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Edmonton+father+shook+injured+baby+sentenced+years+prison/5013040/story.html
Edmonton father who shook, injured baby sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison
By Alexandra Zabjek, edmontonjournal.com June 27, 2011
EDMONTON — As the adults in the courtroom spent hours Monday discussing prison sentences, three-year-old Taelyr Waluk’s head dipped toward her chest and the sound of her laboured breathing sometimes rose above their voices.
She is the toddler at the centre of a court case that saw her father sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison for shaking and choking her with such force she has been left with lifelong mental and physical disabilities.
Taelyr can’t hold her head up, she can’t eat, she has chronic lung problems and she is never expected to be able to understand discussions such as the one that took place in court.
“Some people wish for a million dollars, I just wish my granddaughter could hold up her head so she could swallow,” her grandmother, Brenda Waluk, said in her victim impact statement read during the sentencing hearing for James Vanderham.
It has been three years since the spring morning that Vanderham shook his 10-week-old daughter so hard that she was taken to hospital in a comatose state. Doctors did not expect her to live.
Vanderham pleaded guilty last year to aggravated assault.
During his sentencing hearing, defence lawyer Walter Raponi said Vanderham had been an immature, 20-year-old who acted in frustration when left alone with his daughter for the first time.
“He’s probably the poster child for an unskilled parent,” Walter Raponi said.
He wanted a prison sentence of two to four years, saying his client’s youth, low IQ, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder should be considered in sentencing.
Vanderham addressed the courtroom, half-filled with his family and supporters, and apologized to his daughter. He said he loves her and hopes to see her again.
“I know I’ve failed you as a father....I can never apologize enough to you or all the people this has effected.”
Crown prosecutor Tania Holland suggested a sentence of eight to 10 year.
Vanderham tried to minimize his actions in interviews with a psychiatrist when he denied “choking” his child, instead saying he merely placed one finger on her vocal cords to stop her from crying, she said.
“He was in the ultimate position of trust toward this young baby.”
Holland said the assault occurred in the 90 minutes he had been left alone with his daughter, while his then-girlfriend went out to get asthma medication. The couple had just moved into a house.
Holland said Vanderham initially misled police and medical professionals about what happened to his daughter.
It was at the end of several hours of questioning that he admitted to shaking and choking Taelyr to stop her crying. He said she then fell out of his arms and hit the floor.
Taelyr now lives in Sherwood Park with her mother and maternal grandparents. Her mother, Hailey Waluk, told court she’ll forever feel guilty for leaving her infant daughter alone with Vanderham. She recalled the painful decision she and her family made to take Taelyr off life support after nine days of intense treatment.
Doctors expected the child to live for 30 seconds after being removed from the machines. Instead, she chose to live Taelyr’s family said.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Stephen Hillier said Taelyr Waluk “is special, she is her unique self. But she is not alone
“We owe it to Taelyr and others to identify and implement every strategy possible to reduce the risk that this happens again.”
Outside court, Hailey Waluk said she didn’t think her daughter will ever get justice. “She’ll have to live with this for the rest of her life.”
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Custodial dad, step await trial for torture of son; once again, DCF "missed clues" (Charlotte County, Florida)
Stop the presses! Florida DCF screws up again, and allows a custodial dad (and new step) to abuse (torture) a child!
How many times have we read variations on this story, with almost no changes? I have counted 20 stories in Florida alone of children who died in situations involving custody/visitation with an abusive father. This poor little boy managed to avoid being added to the list only because he literally escaped from captivity, like some sort of prisoner of war.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20110301/SS08/110227018/Exclusive-DCF-missed-clues-Port-Charlotte-boy-s-captivity?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome
Exclusive: DCF missed clues of Port Charlotte boy's captivity
As father, stepmother await trial, questions linger for Florida agency
4:27 PM, Feb. 28, 2011
Written by
JANINE ZEITLIN
jzeitlin@news-press.com Filed Under
By the age of 10, the wiry boy had learned to live like a prisoner of war.
He told his grandmother he passed the months trapped in his room peering at the freedom of the night sky, craning to hear his stepsister’s TV and plotting his escape.
Charlotte County sheriff’s reports paint a disturbing picture of the towheaded boy’s room in a quiet, middle-class Port Charlotte neighborhood:
No toys or lights. No furniture except for a urine-soaked mattress. The lock on his door reversed.
His petite 40-year-old stepmother, Kimberly Boone, told detectives she had smeared feces and urine in his face, “like you would a dog,” and slid peanut butter sandwiches under his door so she wouldn’t have to see him.
It’s been eight months since a crime scene technician found the boy asleep in a bathroom vanity and took him from the home.
But his exit could have come much earlier.
The boy was seen by a slew of child welfare, school, medical and mental health officials and law enforcement officers long before the arrests of his stepmother and father, Thomas Boone, according to records The News-Press obtained.
A Department of Children and Families investigator first visited the home and saw the room in early December.
The agency’s internal review shows the case was bungled. The case has played a role in changes to local DCF policies.
The child is not being named because of the nature of the allegations.
“It’s just unbelievable how many people erred in this,” said Mary Kaiser, his 70-year-old grandmother who has been caring for the boy in her south Fort Myers condo. “Somebody needs to be responsible.”
The background
Three abuse reports were made to DCF starting in December 2009.
The child’s pleas for another place to live went unheeded, records show. He begged DCF investigator Gordon Smith in January for another place to live because he “needed a break,” and drew a picture at school of a gun with bullets going into his head, records show.
The department’s quality assurance review of the case was acquired through a public-records request but all other DCF records are confidential.
Smith left the boy in the home after seeing the room with the mattress and reversed doorknob, records say.
He wouldn’t say why he left him there.
“I really can’t go into that right now because it’s part of the criminal case and I’m being deposed,” he said.
Smith interviewed the parents and the boy, often alone, at least six times and made at least three visits to the home, the review shows. Smith said conditions had spiraled downhill from the time he first saw him to June.
“People don’t know the whole story, and that’s not to say that mistakes weren’t made,” said Smith, 63, of Port Charlotte, who earned $1,507 biweekly and officially retired Dec. 30, 2010.
Smith said the case played no role in his retirement. He was hired by DCF in 2004 after 26 years of police work.
He said he often thinks about the boy, who “was the one who suffered because of it.”
Boy sneaks out
It wasn’t until law enforcement showed up June 19, 2010, after his father called to report him missing, that the boy found a way out.
That day, the grandmother said, the roughly 50-pound boy sneaked out to hunt for food in the master bedroom.
Kimberly and Thomas Boone, 39, spent little time in jail after posting $12,500 bond each, court records show. DCF later placed the boy with his grandmother.
On Thursday, a Charlotte magistrate terminated DCF’s supervision.
His stepmother and father are awaiting trial on two felony child abuse charges each, including one for malicious punishment and/or torture, and a felony child neglect charge.
Neither responded to requests for comment. They are being represented by attorneys paid for by tax dollars. Both have filed pleas of not guilty.
Kaiser plans to relocate with the boy to Tennessee to be with family and away from the attention that will follow from the criminal case.
Kaiser, who calls her son’s alleged actions uncharacteristic, tried to isolate her grandson from the media frenzy after the arrests, but he overheard his father’s name on TV.
“‘Now people will believe me, and now Gordon Smith will believe me,’” Boone recalled her grandson saying.
Amen, she said, and pulled him close for a hug.
The DCF report
DCF’s report outlines several shortcomings.
It concluded Smith failed to gauge the risk to the child, especially given Kimberly Boone’s past and the couple’s admission they confined him for long periods to punish him.
The couple married in 2009, the report says, and conditions changed for the boy. His birth mother has not been in the child’s life since he was a baby, his grandmother said.
Kimberly Boone’s teen children had been removed because of broken bones of her then-infant son, the report says.
It’s not clear in the review when the injuries occurred, but the incident was noted in a DCF report the year before the couple married. Kimberly Boone’s history with the child welfare system began in 1996 after an allegation of physical abuse, it says.
Smith said he had social services come to the home to provide such things as counseling. He blamed the system’s bureaucracy for a communication gap.
“If you don’t hear anything back from the services, you assume everything is OK, and that’s the problem,” he said. “I was relying on other people to tell me what was going on.”
Lutheran Services Florida is subcontracted to handle such services.
Among other failings listed in the report: Smith neglected to question explanations for documented scratches on the boy’s neck and thoroughly investigate a head injury.
He failed to take the boy for mandatory interviews with a child protection team and asked for an exception to the process that would have brought an independent opinion.
“The child continually expressed fear of his stepmother and stated he was afraid to be alone with her,” the quality assurance report says.
Smith said the Boones wanted help but the agency doesn’t have money to deliver services, only make judgments.
“If I’m knocking on the door and saying, ‘I’m from the government and I can help,’ I better be able to back that up,” Smith said. “I didn’t find that in this case and in most cases.”
It initially seemed the family could be kept together, which is often best for the child if he is safe, said Cookie Coleman, who leads DCF in Southwest Florida.
Smith and his supervisor, Abby Duwe, were verbally reprimanded after the report, she said.
Their actions also were dissected before other supervisors for training purposes.
Kaiser believes that was not enough for Smith.
“That man should go to prison with the stepmother because I personally cried and called him until I’m sure if he knew I was calling he would never answer the phone,” she said.
Opinions differ
With all eyes on the family, how did the system not pluck the child from his home earlier?
The case was muddied by differing professional opinions and the child’s recanting of allegations, Coleman said, noting that is not uncommon for children to do.
“Unfortunately, the investigator was listening to that and not actually looking at the physical evidence and giving it the proper weight.”
Kaiser has been frustrated by the response. Child welfare officials have pointed to behavioral problems as a reason, she said.
The boy was taking medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the DCF report says.
“Once DCF realized they had screwed up, they didn’t just say, ‘Wow we screwed up,’ but they just tried to keep covering it up,” Kaiser said.
Coleman said the way the case was handled factored into policy changes.
Investigators can no longer ask for an exception for a mandatory interview with a child protection team, she said, as Smith did for a second report of the stepmother grabbing the child’s neck in January.
“This pretty much gets another set of eyes on the case,” Coleman said.
The team is run by an organization independent of DCF, and conducts detailed interviews to try to ferret out the truth.
Smith asked for the exception because he said there were no signs of injury and the child recanted, the DCF review says.
The agency also will do deeper research into a family’s abuse history and look for patterns that stretch to the present, Coleman said.
Still, she said, the system is not failure proof.
“We are taking steps but unfortunately, we will continue to miss things,” she said. “We can always improve and we always need to improve.”
Signs of abuse
When the crime scene technician found the 10-year-old under the sink, he emerged looking scared and malnourished, say records that also provided this information:
The 10-year-old said his stepmother hit, scratched and threw him, along with forcing him to eat a piece of cloth with feces.
At times, he was made to stand in the corner with his arms up for days.
In the morning, he was allowed a slug of water and, at night, a peanut butter sandwich he sometimes hid under his mattress for when he was really hungry.
The boy told authorities he had been locked in his room since December, only leaving for school or when his family was gone.
The couple didn’t dispute much of what he said, according to reports. Kimberly Boone said she kept the door locked from 9 p.m. to the morning.
Thomas Boone told detectives his son could come out. Keeping him in the room was punishment for lying, he said.
The couple moved out of the white house with green trim after their arrests, said landlord Phillip Heyden.
The Boones told him the boy would run away at night, and they were in counseling.
“They seemed to be nice people, and it turned into a nightmare for them,” Heyden said.
His wish list
The evening the 10-year-old was removed, before going to bed in the cozy guest room of his grandmother’s condo, he scribbled out two lists.
Things he wanted to get included: “few bags of marshmellows, few boxes of gramcrackers.”
On his to-do list was: “roast marshmellows, go shoping ... go to the park for a few minuts, draw.”
He has asked to see his father, and told detectives he loved him, court records show. His father’s attorney has asked a no-contact order be lifted, which was denied.
The boy’s drawings no longer depict suicide; they feature airplanes. He recently told his grandmother he no longer thinks about his stepmother every day. That’s probably a good thing, she told him.
“There will be remnants of this forever, but he’s got a real capability for solving problems,” Kaiser said. “He’s like a little man in a 10-year-old body.”
How many times have we read variations on this story, with almost no changes? I have counted 20 stories in Florida alone of children who died in situations involving custody/visitation with an abusive father. This poor little boy managed to avoid being added to the list only because he literally escaped from captivity, like some sort of prisoner of war.
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2011/02/175-killer-dads-fathers-who-ended-their.html
It is almost impossible to say how many children survive situations involving custody/visitation with a abusive father, but with the scars of physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse or neglect. Notice that the mother's existence is at least acknowledged--no mysterious stork here for once--but we're only told she hasn't been around since the baby's birth.
Why? Was she homeless? Did she have drug or alcohol problems? Was she underage? It seems to me whatever her issues were--assuming she had issues--they weren't nearly as bad as Daddy's turned out to be, wouldn't you think? And that's assuming she DID in fact have issues. And notice that not one word is said here to document or even suggest that she did. It is also DISTINCTLY POSSIBLE that abuser daddy THOMAS BOONE simply outgunned her in court. The general public still does not understand that these kinds of torturers are often unrelenting in their pursuit of custody, and that they are obsessive in their desire to either "punish" the mother and/or secure a helpless victim for their rage.http://www.news-press.com/article/20110301/SS08/110227018/Exclusive-DCF-missed-clues-Port-Charlotte-boy-s-captivity?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome
Exclusive: DCF missed clues of Port Charlotte boy's captivity
As father, stepmother await trial, questions linger for Florida agency
4:27 PM, Feb. 28, 2011
Written by
JANINE ZEITLIN
jzeitlin@news-press.com Filed Under
By the age of 10, the wiry boy had learned to live like a prisoner of war.
He told his grandmother he passed the months trapped in his room peering at the freedom of the night sky, craning to hear his stepsister’s TV and plotting his escape.
Charlotte County sheriff’s reports paint a disturbing picture of the towheaded boy’s room in a quiet, middle-class Port Charlotte neighborhood:
No toys or lights. No furniture except for a urine-soaked mattress. The lock on his door reversed.
His petite 40-year-old stepmother, Kimberly Boone, told detectives she had smeared feces and urine in his face, “like you would a dog,” and slid peanut butter sandwiches under his door so she wouldn’t have to see him.
It’s been eight months since a crime scene technician found the boy asleep in a bathroom vanity and took him from the home.
But his exit could have come much earlier.
The boy was seen by a slew of child welfare, school, medical and mental health officials and law enforcement officers long before the arrests of his stepmother and father, Thomas Boone, according to records The News-Press obtained.
A Department of Children and Families investigator first visited the home and saw the room in early December.
The agency’s internal review shows the case was bungled. The case has played a role in changes to local DCF policies.
The child is not being named because of the nature of the allegations.
“It’s just unbelievable how many people erred in this,” said Mary Kaiser, his 70-year-old grandmother who has been caring for the boy in her south Fort Myers condo. “Somebody needs to be responsible.”
The background
Three abuse reports were made to DCF starting in December 2009.
The child’s pleas for another place to live went unheeded, records show. He begged DCF investigator Gordon Smith in January for another place to live because he “needed a break,” and drew a picture at school of a gun with bullets going into his head, records show.
The department’s quality assurance review of the case was acquired through a public-records request but all other DCF records are confidential.
Smith left the boy in the home after seeing the room with the mattress and reversed doorknob, records say.
He wouldn’t say why he left him there.
“I really can’t go into that right now because it’s part of the criminal case and I’m being deposed,” he said.
Smith interviewed the parents and the boy, often alone, at least six times and made at least three visits to the home, the review shows. Smith said conditions had spiraled downhill from the time he first saw him to June.
“People don’t know the whole story, and that’s not to say that mistakes weren’t made,” said Smith, 63, of Port Charlotte, who earned $1,507 biweekly and officially retired Dec. 30, 2010.
Smith said the case played no role in his retirement. He was hired by DCF in 2004 after 26 years of police work.
He said he often thinks about the boy, who “was the one who suffered because of it.”
Boy sneaks out
It wasn’t until law enforcement showed up June 19, 2010, after his father called to report him missing, that the boy found a way out.
That day, the grandmother said, the roughly 50-pound boy sneaked out to hunt for food in the master bedroom.
Kimberly and Thomas Boone, 39, spent little time in jail after posting $12,500 bond each, court records show. DCF later placed the boy with his grandmother.
On Thursday, a Charlotte magistrate terminated DCF’s supervision.
His stepmother and father are awaiting trial on two felony child abuse charges each, including one for malicious punishment and/or torture, and a felony child neglect charge.
Neither responded to requests for comment. They are being represented by attorneys paid for by tax dollars. Both have filed pleas of not guilty.
Kaiser plans to relocate with the boy to Tennessee to be with family and away from the attention that will follow from the criminal case.
Kaiser, who calls her son’s alleged actions uncharacteristic, tried to isolate her grandson from the media frenzy after the arrests, but he overheard his father’s name on TV.
“‘Now people will believe me, and now Gordon Smith will believe me,’” Boone recalled her grandson saying.
Amen, she said, and pulled him close for a hug.
The DCF report
DCF’s report outlines several shortcomings.
It concluded Smith failed to gauge the risk to the child, especially given Kimberly Boone’s past and the couple’s admission they confined him for long periods to punish him.
The couple married in 2009, the report says, and conditions changed for the boy. His birth mother has not been in the child’s life since he was a baby, his grandmother said.
Kimberly Boone’s teen children had been removed because of broken bones of her then-infant son, the report says.
It’s not clear in the review when the injuries occurred, but the incident was noted in a DCF report the year before the couple married. Kimberly Boone’s history with the child welfare system began in 1996 after an allegation of physical abuse, it says.
Smith said he had social services come to the home to provide such things as counseling. He blamed the system’s bureaucracy for a communication gap.
“If you don’t hear anything back from the services, you assume everything is OK, and that’s the problem,” he said. “I was relying on other people to tell me what was going on.”
Lutheran Services Florida is subcontracted to handle such services.
Among other failings listed in the report: Smith neglected to question explanations for documented scratches on the boy’s neck and thoroughly investigate a head injury.
He failed to take the boy for mandatory interviews with a child protection team and asked for an exception to the process that would have brought an independent opinion.
“The child continually expressed fear of his stepmother and stated he was afraid to be alone with her,” the quality assurance report says.
Smith said the Boones wanted help but the agency doesn’t have money to deliver services, only make judgments.
“If I’m knocking on the door and saying, ‘I’m from the government and I can help,’ I better be able to back that up,” Smith said. “I didn’t find that in this case and in most cases.”
It initially seemed the family could be kept together, which is often best for the child if he is safe, said Cookie Coleman, who leads DCF in Southwest Florida.
Smith and his supervisor, Abby Duwe, were verbally reprimanded after the report, she said.
Their actions also were dissected before other supervisors for training purposes.
Kaiser believes that was not enough for Smith.
“That man should go to prison with the stepmother because I personally cried and called him until I’m sure if he knew I was calling he would never answer the phone,” she said.
Opinions differ
With all eyes on the family, how did the system not pluck the child from his home earlier?
The case was muddied by differing professional opinions and the child’s recanting of allegations, Coleman said, noting that is not uncommon for children to do.
“Unfortunately, the investigator was listening to that and not actually looking at the physical evidence and giving it the proper weight.”
Kaiser has been frustrated by the response. Child welfare officials have pointed to behavioral problems as a reason, she said.
The boy was taking medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the DCF report says.
“Once DCF realized they had screwed up, they didn’t just say, ‘Wow we screwed up,’ but they just tried to keep covering it up,” Kaiser said.
Coleman said the way the case was handled factored into policy changes.
Investigators can no longer ask for an exception for a mandatory interview with a child protection team, she said, as Smith did for a second report of the stepmother grabbing the child’s neck in January.
“This pretty much gets another set of eyes on the case,” Coleman said.
The team is run by an organization independent of DCF, and conducts detailed interviews to try to ferret out the truth.
Smith asked for the exception because he said there were no signs of injury and the child recanted, the DCF review says.
The agency also will do deeper research into a family’s abuse history and look for patterns that stretch to the present, Coleman said.
Still, she said, the system is not failure proof.
“We are taking steps but unfortunately, we will continue to miss things,” she said. “We can always improve and we always need to improve.”
Signs of abuse
When the crime scene technician found the 10-year-old under the sink, he emerged looking scared and malnourished, say records that also provided this information:
The 10-year-old said his stepmother hit, scratched and threw him, along with forcing him to eat a piece of cloth with feces.
At times, he was made to stand in the corner with his arms up for days.
In the morning, he was allowed a slug of water and, at night, a peanut butter sandwich he sometimes hid under his mattress for when he was really hungry.
The boy told authorities he had been locked in his room since December, only leaving for school or when his family was gone.
The couple didn’t dispute much of what he said, according to reports. Kimberly Boone said she kept the door locked from 9 p.m. to the morning.
Thomas Boone told detectives his son could come out. Keeping him in the room was punishment for lying, he said.
The couple moved out of the white house with green trim after their arrests, said landlord Phillip Heyden.
The Boones told him the boy would run away at night, and they were in counseling.
“They seemed to be nice people, and it turned into a nightmare for them,” Heyden said.
His wish list
The evening the 10-year-old was removed, before going to bed in the cozy guest room of his grandmother’s condo, he scribbled out two lists.
Things he wanted to get included: “few bags of marshmellows, few boxes of gramcrackers.”
On his to-do list was: “roast marshmellows, go shoping ... go to the park for a few minuts, draw.”
He has asked to see his father, and told detectives he loved him, court records show. His father’s attorney has asked a no-contact order be lifted, which was denied.
The boy’s drawings no longer depict suicide; they feature airplanes. He recently told his grandmother he no longer thinks about his stepmother every day. That’s probably a good thing, she told him.
“There will be remnants of this forever, but he’s got a real capability for solving problems,” Kaiser said. “He’s like a little man in a 10-year-old body.”
Saturday, January 9, 2010
"Primary caretaker" dad admits to shaking 14-week-old daughter (Lafayette, Indiana)
Dad MATTHEW T. SCHULTZ has pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent causing serious bodily injury, a Class B felony.
Seems Dad was acting as "primary caretaker" (unemployed babysitter) of his 14-week-old daughter since his wife had to work, and we have no decent maternity leaves in this country. Well, it was just too "frustrating" for Daddy, so he'd get "angry" when the baby did outrageous things like, well, crying. So he shook the baby on "several occasions" (basically over the entirety of her two-month existence) till her eyes were crossed and she was foaming at the mouth. The baby suffered retinal damage and bleeding on the brain from the abusive head trauma. Doctors believe the effects of the injuries will be lifelong.
Dad just has a laundry lists of excuses--everything but the heartbreak of psoriasis. He's got attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, depression, "anger problems", and "probably substance abuse, too." Oh, and though he's listed on the baby's birth certificate, he's not REALLY the father. He's really the stepdad. Like that explains anything. Why not just admit that you're an abusive @$$wipe who shouldn't be around babies or other living things?
http://www.jconline.com/article/20100108/NEWS09/100108019/Lafayette-man-admits-to-shaking-infant
Lafayette man admits to shaking infant
By SOPHIA VORAVONG • svoravong@jconline.com • January 8, 2010
A Lafayette man faces up to 15 years in prison for causing severe head and brain injuries that hospitalized his infant stepdaughter for several weeks this past summer.
Matthew T. Schulz, 21, pleaded guilty this morning in Tippecanoe Superior Court 1 to neglect of a dependent causing serious bodily injury, a Class B felony.
He admitted to shaking his stepdaughter, Chloe Schulz, because he would get frustrated and angry when the girl cried.
Schulz told Judge Randy Williams that he suffered from depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as a youth and took medication until he was 16 or 17 years old.
He said he currently suffers from "bipolar disorder, depression, anger problems ... and probably substance abuse, too."
According to court documents, Shulz was Chloe's primary caregiver while his wife was at work. The girl was 14 weeks old when she was taken to St. Elizabeth Central hospital on June 19, 2009.
She was foaming at the mouth and her eyes were crossed.
Chloe was then flown to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. She had injuries that indicated she was shaken on different occasions over two months, beginning shortly after Chloe was born on March 8, 2009.
Those injuries included retinal hemorrhages in both eyes and blood on her brain, indicating abusive head trauma. The effects of her injuries will likely be lifelong.
At the time, the family lived in an apartment on Lafayette's south end. Though Schulz is listed on the girl's birth certificate, he said today that he is not Chloe's biological father.
Under Schulz's plea agreement with the Tippecanoe County prosecutor's office, he faces between six and 15 years in prison. A Class B felony is typically punishable by up to 20 years incarceration.
He also is prohibited from appealing his sentence and cannot care for a child under age 15 upon release from prison.
Schulz is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 26.
Seems Dad was acting as "primary caretaker" (unemployed babysitter) of his 14-week-old daughter since his wife had to work, and we have no decent maternity leaves in this country. Well, it was just too "frustrating" for Daddy, so he'd get "angry" when the baby did outrageous things like, well, crying. So he shook the baby on "several occasions" (basically over the entirety of her two-month existence) till her eyes were crossed and she was foaming at the mouth. The baby suffered retinal damage and bleeding on the brain from the abusive head trauma. Doctors believe the effects of the injuries will be lifelong.
Dad just has a laundry lists of excuses--everything but the heartbreak of psoriasis. He's got attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, depression, "anger problems", and "probably substance abuse, too." Oh, and though he's listed on the baby's birth certificate, he's not REALLY the father. He's really the stepdad. Like that explains anything. Why not just admit that you're an abusive @$$wipe who shouldn't be around babies or other living things?
http://www.jconline.com/article/20100108/NEWS09/100108019/Lafayette-man-admits-to-shaking-infant
Lafayette man admits to shaking infant
By SOPHIA VORAVONG • svoravong@jconline.com • January 8, 2010
A Lafayette man faces up to 15 years in prison for causing severe head and brain injuries that hospitalized his infant stepdaughter for several weeks this past summer.
Matthew T. Schulz, 21, pleaded guilty this morning in Tippecanoe Superior Court 1 to neglect of a dependent causing serious bodily injury, a Class B felony.
He admitted to shaking his stepdaughter, Chloe Schulz, because he would get frustrated and angry when the girl cried.
Schulz told Judge Randy Williams that he suffered from depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as a youth and took medication until he was 16 or 17 years old.
He said he currently suffers from "bipolar disorder, depression, anger problems ... and probably substance abuse, too."
According to court documents, Shulz was Chloe's primary caregiver while his wife was at work. The girl was 14 weeks old when she was taken to St. Elizabeth Central hospital on June 19, 2009.
She was foaming at the mouth and her eyes were crossed.
Chloe was then flown to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. She had injuries that indicated she was shaken on different occasions over two months, beginning shortly after Chloe was born on March 8, 2009.
Those injuries included retinal hemorrhages in both eyes and blood on her brain, indicating abusive head trauma. The effects of her injuries will likely be lifelong.
At the time, the family lived in an apartment on Lafayette's south end. Though Schulz is listed on the girl's birth certificate, he said today that he is not Chloe's biological father.
Under Schulz's plea agreement with the Tippecanoe County prosecutor's office, he faces between six and 15 years in prison. A Class B felony is typically punishable by up to 20 years incarceration.
He also is prohibited from appealing his sentence and cannot care for a child under age 15 upon release from prison.
Schulz is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 26.
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