OKMULGEE, Okla. (WSVN) — An Oklahoma man is behind bars after he was accused of beating his girlfriend’s young son for opening a Christmas gift early.
According to Fox 5, the victim’s mother, Bridgette Payne, told the story through a now-unavailable Facebook post. Payne said she left her 5-year-old son with her boyfriend, Wesley McCollum, while she went to do some Christmas shopping.
When she came home, she said McCollum told her he sent her son to bed because he opened a Christmas gift early. When she went to go check on her son, she said she discovered bruises on his arms, back and face, and a handprint on his cheek.
“Words cannot explain seeing your baby like this and having no clue what happened,” Payne wrote in the Facebook post, which also included several photos of her son’s injuries. “I ran to him like any mother would do crying, hugging him, begging what happened. ‘Wesley hurt me bad mama,’ is all he kept saying.”
Payne said McCollum told her he was trying to teach “to teach him a lesson” and said ‘he needed to learn to listen.'”
The distraught mother immediately called police, who arrested McCollum on charges of child abuse and child neglect, KJRH reports. Payne also said she has since filed a protective order against McCollum.
Payne said she had “not once” seen McCollum angry, and never thought he would hurt to her children.
“I would [have] never been with him. Plain and simple,” Payne wrote on Facebook.
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