Andrew Atkerson Palm Coast Florida father arrested beating 9 year old son over IPad app. Father has a long history of prior violent arrests, including domestic violence against boy’s mother.
Probably not the parent of the year … A Palm Coast, Florida father with a history of violence is accused of savagely beating his 9-year-old son following the boy and his younger brother making a variety of app purchases on an iPad earlier this month.
Andrew Wayne Atkerson, 33 of Reine Place upon his arrest on Tuesday was charged with child abuse ‘without great bodily harm’ following the beating that took place on Feb. 3 according to an arrest report.
Authorities arrested the father nearly two weeks later on February 11th following an investigation involving the Florida Department of Children and Families Child Protection Team, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office stated in a Facebook release.
Matters came to the fore after Atkerson found out that his 9 year old son, along with the boy’s younger brother, had made an ‘in-application purchase’ on their iPad. An enraged Atkerson, is allegedly to have then pushed the 9-year-old boy, ‘picked him up multiple times and threw him into items inside the home including walls and closets.’
The episode led to the child suffered bruising under both eyes, bruising on his left hip area, and bruising on his upper back right shoulder area FOX35 reported.
‘I might have overpunished them a little bit.’
It wasn’t until the following day that the boy’s mother, who appeared to be estranged from the father came across her son’s injuries upon picking him at school.
In a text the father sent to the mother, Atkerson claimed he did not touch the boy, while admitting, ‘besides whipping his ass,’ and saying, ‘I might have overpunished them a little bit.’
The beaten child was interviewed by the Florida Child Protection Team, upon suspected of having been abused and the mother passing photos of the boy’s injuries to the agency.
‘No child should ever have to endure what this man did to his child. It appears this man has no ability to control his rage,’ Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly stated in a release. ‘Parents have the right to discipline their children but cannot go overboard, which happened in this case. A more appropriate discipline would have been to restrict access to the iPad or make them do chores around the house to pay for the items they ordered, not beat their child. I’m thankful the mother reported her observations and the work our detectives and DCF have done on this case to protect the children. Child abuse victims often have to live with those scars forever.’
Since 2004, Atkerson has faced 20 different charges in California and Florida, according to authorities
In 2017, Atkerson was arrested for felony domestic battery when he attacked his wife while his children watched.
Atkerson was arrested on felony child abuse charges and booked into the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility. He remains behind bars on a $12,500 bond.
