A Hephzibah man beat his 10-year-old son with a belt last week over “smooshed cake,” leaving the boy with a fractured pinkie and bruises all over his body, authorities said.
Vernon Gilchrist Sr., 31, of Heartwood Street, remained in jail Wednesday with cruelty to children in the first degree for the beating. The boy was treated at the hospital.
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The beating came to light last Wednesday when the boy showed up at Heavenly Creations Daycare and asked a teacher for a bandage for a scrape on his arm. The teacher then noticed bruises all over his body.
The boy said the wounds were from “a beating he received from his father the evening before,” a sheriff’s report says.
The teacher then notified the child’s grandmother, who shares custody of the child with his father. The boy’s mother only has visitation rights.
The grandmother called the sheriff’s office, and the 10-year-old boy told investigators about the beating:
He said he got in trouble the night before when his little brother told on him for smooshing a cake that belonged to his brother. His father sat on top of him while he removed his belt. His father then began striking him multiple time with the leather and belt buckle of the belt around his chest and arms area. He received bruises to both arms, chest, back, and right calf. His left pinkie finger was swollen to the point he could not fully bend it.
The Richmond County Department of Family and Children Services was contacted and the boy was put in the custody of Gilhrist.
The boy was taken to Augusta University Medical Center., where a doctor said the injuries were consistent with being struck with a belt as well as X-rays showed a small fracture to the pinky finger on his left hand. The physician said that in her medical opinion the injuries to the victim substantiate abuse.
