Timothoes Powell, Holly Hill, Florida man tries to circumcise 2 year old boy he was babysitting on behalf of relative. Charged with child abuse after incriminating video discovered.
A Florida man has been charged with child abuse charges after allegedly cutting a 2-year-old relative’s penis in a botched circumcision attempt while babysitting the boy.
Timothoes Powell, 29, of Holly Hill was arrested last month after the toddler’s mother, Powell’s cousin, rushed the boy to the hospital for a laceration on his genitals, according to police.
Powell had been babysitting the boy while his mother was at work in Daytona Beach on Oct. 17 when the alleged abuse occurred.
Incriminating video evidence
He called the the child’s mother at around 7 p.m. to tell her that the child was ‘bleeding from his penis area as glass had entered his diaper,’ according to a Holly Hill police report obtained by WESH.
The family then rushed the boy to the hospital, where he had to have his skin glued to repair the injury. Hospital staffers flagged the child’s wound as suspicious and reported it to police fearing that he may have been abused.
Investigators spoke to the family and learned the toddler was in Powell’s care at the time he was injured. Police questioned the man who again claimed that ‘there must have been a piece of glass in his diaper’.
Powell also told cops ‘he may have pulled [the boy’s] penis downward with too much force’ and wiped him ‘very hard.’ He said he ‘did not intentionally cut’ the child.
But a senior nurse from the Child Protection Team said the little boy’s laceration was ‘much too clean and precise to be accidental in any way,’ and was done with intent.
She added that the injury looked like ‘they may have tried to circumcise’ the child, according to the police report.
Investigators said Powell’s statements about how the child was cut didn’t add up with his lacerations and recovered surveillance footage showing his behavior toward the kid.
The videos, recorded by home security cameras inside the house, show Powell changing the boy’s diaper and walking away with an unknown object in his hand, while the baby screams and cries.
Powell also seemed ‘frustrated’ while putting on the boy’s diaper in another video.
He allegedly yelled at the boy — threatening to put soap in his mouth if he wasn’t quiet and squirted him with a water bottle, according to the police report.
Powell was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse and remains behind bars at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $100,000 bond.
Not immediately clear is what led to the babysitter attempted to circumsize the toddler.
