Boyfriend Allegedly Beats Child For Peeking At Christmas Presents
A mother from Okmulgee, Oklahoma, accused her boyfriend of beating her five-year-old son Dec. 16 after the child opened one of his Christmas presents early. The man is facing charges for his actions, which occurred while the woman's children were left under his care as she worked to complete her Christmas shopping.
Bridgette Payne "lost it" when she returned home from running errands to find her son, Ayrian, covered in bruises and welts all over his body. Investigators said Payne's 25-year-old boyfriend, Wesley McCollum, went too far in an attempt to punish the young child. Payne shared the incident in a since-deleted Facebook post that described how her son repeatedly said: "Wesley hurt me bad, mama."
"Words cannot explain seeing your baby like this and having no clue what happened," Payne wrote on Facebook, according to The Miami Herald. "I ran to him like any mother would do crying, hugging him, beggin[g] what happened."
"For a grown man to punch a child over and over and slap him and beat him with a belt ALL over is no man at all. He is the lowest scum on earth," Payne added.
As a victim of domestic abuse, Payne never imagined that her son would suffer the same fate. She claimed to have never seen anger from McCollum in the past 10 months.
"I never EVER thought he would do this or I would of never been with him. Plain and simple," McCollum continued, according to The Miami Herald. "There is an evil inside of some people no one sees and that's how this happened. If I could change my son places in a heartbeat I would."
Police were called to Payne's home later that evening. While Ayrian was transported to the hospital, McCollum was arrested on complaints of child abuse and neglect.
Payne filed for a protective order Monday against McCollum, according to KJRH.
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