Dad pleads guilty to assault

[Cheese]

I find this story absolutely abhorent....the guy needs to be put away for a long time.
Happened here in Waterloo...."an odd political/religious group?" WTF

From when he was four to when he was 10, an adopted boy's parents beat him with a rod, forced him to perform exercises as punishment for not memorizing Bible verses, and deprived him of food, a court heard yesterday.
The child's adoptive father -- a member of an odd political/religious group -- pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon.

Adopted son

[duncan]

unfortunately this is more common than most would believe. We have had a few victims that fought back, and ended up in the system. The worst case I saw was a kid that had 32 burns down his arms, and 57 slash marks. His father, as a method of discipline, would put out his cigars on his forearms, and if he cried, would 'give him something to cry about' . At 16, the kid had outgrown the father, and retaliated by beating him to death.

[Cheese]

Originally Posted by duncan

unfortunately this is more common than most would believe. We have had a few victims that fought back, and ended up in the system. The worst case I saw was a kid that had 32 burns down his arms, and 57 slash marks. His father, as a method of discipline, would put out his cigars on his forearms, and if he cried, would 'give him something to cry about' . At 16, the kid had outgrown the father, and retaliated by beating him to death.

wow...just wow.
Why is that kid in jail? He should simply be getting psych help to manage himself....or is that possible?

[notoepik]

Can a kid recover from that sort of abuse? Does any amount of psychiatric therapy and intervention ever heal the mental scarring?

I read A Boy Called It, and wonder how he could ever be mentally healthy after that kind of abuse.

[duncan]

I don't think he will ever recover. The kid I discussed started using some serious stuff to 'mask' his pain. By the time we saw him, he was addicted to crack, meth and heroin, and had a history of 'huffing' gas, sniffing glue, and heavy alchohol abuse. They wouldn't use the self-defence plea, because there had been no assault for days (because he was now 6'3'' and 250lbs), and he had planned the murder. They did take it into consideration during sentencing though.

[CaramonLS]

I guess the dad missed the whole point of the moral implications of the bible.

What a fataing moron.

[icarus]

As a cabin leader at a summer camp I once had a kid from Devon, AB IIRC who had all sorts of scars from his dad putting out cigarettes on him and who knows what else.

Needless to say, the kid had some big time emotional and social difficulties, and was very challenging for me to deal with. Nice kid but some big problems. Very sad actually, I had to have a lot of chats with him and it would break your heart that this kid was screwed up like that.

He had horrific nightmares and sleeping in the same cabin with him was the worst of all.

I really can't understand what makes some fathers into such monsters.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by duncan

I don't think he will ever recover. The kid I discussed started using some serious stuff to 'mask' his pain. By the time we saw him, he was addicted to crack, meth and heroin, and had a history of 'huffing' gas, sniffing glue, and heavy alchohol abuse. They wouldn't use the self-defence plea, because there had been no assault for days (because he was now 6'3'' and 250lbs), and he had planned the murder. They did take it into consideration during sentencing though.

I wouldn't count this kid out yet. The quotes that are there when he talks about his parents hating him tell me that he understands it's not him, it was them. I would suggest though that if the child doesn't get some love in his life and soon, he probably won't recover and would never feel worthy of anything.

I cannot say often enough and loud enough that children NEED more love! To give them food, clothing and shelter is not enough! You have got to love them too! If I ever thought that 'they' would allow me to, I would adopt a ****load of older kids to show them they are worthy of love and someone out there cares a lot. Hmmm... I should look into that.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by duncan

I don't think he will ever recover. The kid I discussed started using some serious stuff to 'mask' his pain. By the time we saw him, he was addicted to crack, meth and heroin, and had a history of 'huffing' gas, sniffing glue, and heavy alchohol abuse. They wouldn't use the self-defence plea, because there had been no assault for days (because he was now 6'3'' and 250lbs), and he had planned the murder. They did take it into consideration during sentencing though.

Couldn't they have used a version of the Battered Woman defense?

Hell, Dorathy Jodre killed her Husband because of Severe Abuse although she hadn't actually been a victim for almost 20 years. She only served 1 year in a mental hospital.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Couldn't they have used a version of the Battered Woman defense?

Hell, Dorathy Jodre killed her Husband because of Severe Abuse although she hadn't actually been a victim for almost 20 years. She only served 1 year in a mental hospital.

Didn't the husband live.

The guy Duncan is talking about is probably not safe to have on the street. Life is certainly not always
fair.