The little girl's mother’s live-in boyfriend, 47 year old Clarence Reed, regularly called the child “Idiot” instead of using her real name, police said.
He also had at one time, zip-tied the 4-year-old girl to her bed as a form of punishment, according to a police report.
and the child’s mother, Jennifer Denen, 30, both of Hot Springs, Ark., are now charged with domestic battery, permitting abuse of a minor and endangering welfare of a minor.
Police received a call Friday to the Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Center, where a staff member told an officer that a malnourished 4-year-old had been abused in her home.
Reed and the child's 30 year old mother, Jennifer Denen, who were at the center when police arrived, were later arrested.
Denen told police that she had seen her boyfriend strike her daughter with a plastic bat and said she’d heard Reed frequently call her 4 year old daughter, “Idiot.”
She admitted not seeking medical care for her daughter, each time Reed hurt her. But when interviewed, Reed told authorities that he hit the child with a half-inch-thick wooden paddle instead of a plastic bat, like Denen claimed. He also admitted zip-tying the child to punish her for climbing the kitchen cabinets.
He also admitted to calling the child “Idiot,” but that he always meant it as a joke.
Cpl. Kirk Zaner, spokesman for the Hot Springs Police Department, said that a total of six children lived in the house, all of whom are Denen’s.
The Police said the youngest child in the house, an 11-month-old baby, is her only child with Reed..
Zaner said the 4-year-old girl and the 11-month-old are now in the custody of the Department of Human Services, while the four older siblings have been placed with their biological father.
Source: The Washington Post
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