Some people shouldn’t be parents. There are some horrible parents out there who do terrible things and it is always their children that suffer, whether it be direct physical harm or being placed in dangerous situations.
I have heard many horrific cases here at work and on the news. They range from parents speeding or DUI with their children in the car, without car seats or unsecured to actually physically harming their children themselves.
Please note that some of what you’re about to read will be hard to do so.
Probably the hardest thing I had to do here at work was to stand by during a felony child abuse case where the defendant was testifying on his own behalf in front of a jury. My job was to make sure he didn’t escape and to protect him since he was in-custody. He was accused of purposely burning over 30% of his few-months old daughter’s body with scalding hot water. So I had to sit a few feet away from him and hear his whole testimony and I will tell you it was very hard to do, especially as being a father myself.
During direct questioning, he put on a show with full water works, crying on the stand claiming that he checked the water and didn’t know that it was that hot. He also said that he left her in it just for a few seconds. The burns were so bad that her some of her skin peeled away.
When the District Attorney cross examined him, he no longer was emotional as he was on direct. The DA pointed out some facts about what happened that contradicted his previous testimony and he didn’t have any reasonable explanations for any of it.
The defendant was watching his daughter for his girlfriend who had to go to work. His daughter was asleep, taking a nap when he got there. He decided to wake her up from her nap and she started to be fussy and cry. He couldn’t get her to stop crying and he was getting frustrated and decided to punish her with scalding hot water.
The jury found him guilty and convicted him for the crime. Thankfully I didn’t see the pictures of the victim. As hard as it was to sit there and listen to all of this, I had a job to do and I wasn’t going to let my emotions get in the way of that. All I could think of was that poor baby, she didn’t deserve to be scarred for the rest of her life.
I can’t imagine ever hurting my own child in any way. I understand that it can be extremely frustrating and stressful to be a parent but we all made a choice to have children, our children do not have the option to choose who their parents are. It is our job to protect them and keep them safe. It is always hard to understand why people commit certain crimes, especially one’s that involve children.
At least this defendant will be behind bars, where he belongs for some years to come.