After a man from Florida allegedly beat his son while the mother failed to report the incident, both parents were arrested and charged with child abuse.
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The couple has been identified as Lance Eugene Rachel and Kimberly Corene Rachel. The child’s identity has been withheld. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office announced their investigation on Monday Dec. 16th, in addition to the couple’s arrests.
According to People, the incident happened on Dec. 7th. The press release further detailed the abuse, saying that the child was allegedly “struck over 50 times with a belt.” The victim was also allegedly “choked and called several disparaging names and other obscenities.”
“The suspect was angry about a couch cushion being displaced and accused the victim of lying,” the sheriff’s office reported. “The suspect maliciously punished the child by screaming obscenities and physically abusing the victim over the course of 28 minutes.”
The sheriff’s office also reported that the father allegedly “threatened to break the victim’s jaw.” Although the child’s mother was not accused of physically abusing the child, she was “arrested for failure to report the known child abuse.”
“Some of the incident was captured on in-home surveillance cameras,” the sheriff’s office said. The child’s father apparently admitted to the abuse when questioned by detectives. He was charged with “aggravated child abuse and battery by strangulation.”
“Corporal punishment on your child is one thing, but child abuse and going too far is against the law,” Osceola County Sheriff Marcos R. Lopez said.