Florida Man Accused Of Attempting To Circumcise 2-Year-Old Cousin
A Florida man is facing child abuse charges after he allegedly attempted to circumcise his 2-year-old cousin.
The Holly Hill Police Department arrested 29-year-old Timothoes Powell on Monday and charged him with first-degree aggravated child abuse in connection with an incident last month involving his younger relative.
On Oct. 17, Powell was watching his 2-year-old cousin while the boy’s mother was at work, according to Orlando Fox affilate WOFL TV. He reportedly called the boy’s mother around 7 p.m. and told her the child was “bleeding from his penis area as glass had entered his diaper,” according to a police report obtained by the station. Powell said that when he tried to wipe off the glass, the skin near the boy’s genitals broke.
The boy was taken to the hospital, where doctors had to repair the injury by gluing the skin.
Hospital officials “feared some type of abuse was happening at the residence,” and reported the incident to police, per WOFL.
Surveillance cameras in the home showed Powell changing the boy’s diaper before walking away with an object of some kind in his hand. The video showed the child crying and screaming until Powell returned and re-diapered him.
Pollice learned about the incident on Oct. 21 from an investigator with the Florida Department of Children and Families, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
When Powell was asked about the injuries, he allegedly said he’d grown frustrated with the boy and lost his temper, and that “he may have pulled (the child’s) penis downward with too much force” and began “to wipe him very hard,” according to CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG TV.
But both a nurse and a doctor working for the DCF said the cut was too clean and precise to be accidental, according to the arrest report.
Powell was arrested Monday afternoon. As of Thursday, he was still in the Volusia County Jail on a bond of $100,000.
His next court date is Nov. 21.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.