A Florida mom was seen on video she recorded encouraging one of her children to beat a child under 5 with a belt, laughing and telling the child to “hit harder, baby” and “beat the crap out of the sly devil.”
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies made the discovery when they searched Karyn S. Parrish’s cell phone after taking her into custody when they were called for a welfare check at the home on Tuesday, WKRC reported.
Accompanied by invetigators from the Department of Child and Family Services, the deputies found a young victim in distress, shaking and crying. The child had a fresh haircut and a bruise on one cheek. They asked how the child got the injury.
“Maybe my mom. Maybe she was slapping me around,” the child said, according to the affidavit. “She doesn’t remember.”
The child added that the mother “doesn’t remember things.”
Parrish, 28, later admitted she had slapped the child with the palm of her hand at least three times.
Although they didn’t say why they searched Parrish’s cell phone, they did, and they found multiple videos they said showed extreme disregard for the victim’s mental and physical well-beaing.
“Detectives discovered videos on Parrish’s phone in which she directed one of her children to strike their sibling (the victim) with a belt,” said the affidavit. “In one of the recordings, Parrish can be heard laughing and saying, ‘Hit harder. Hit hard, baby. Beat the crap out of the sly devil.’”
Another video shows her taunting the child while giving them a haircut. She tells the victim she’ll “tortue” them for eight hours, adding “if they die, so be it.”
Deputies did not say how many children lived in the home, but they were all removed and placed into the care of a relative.
According to a probable cause affidavit, a second video was found that allegedly showed Parrish cutting the victim’s hair while verbally taunting and harassing the victim. In the video, she can be heard saying that the victim would be “tortured” for eight hours. She also told the victim that “if they die, so be it.”
It wasn’t clear just how many children lived in the home, but the juveniles were removed and placed in the care of a relative, according to authorities.
“It’s absolutely gut-wrenching and incomprehensible to have a case like this, where a mother would inflict such horrifying treatment on her own children,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “My heart aches for these two young and innocent children.
Parrish remained jailed on a $7,500 bond on Saturday, jail records show. If she is released, she is not allowed to have contact with any minors, including the victim or any of her other children. She is charged with one count of child abuse.
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[Featured image: Karyn Parrish/Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office]
