Two women have been accused of brutally beating three children with a spiked dog leash and stick for failing to do their chores well.
Haley Blevins, 19, was charged with three counts of felony injury to a child, and Jacalyn Cook, 30, was charged with two on 24 October, Texarkana Texas Police Department said.
The women reportedly grew furious at the young boys aged 12, 7 and 4, after they failed to do chores to their ‘standard’ and began to beat them over and over with the harsh instruments, police said in an arrest affidavit seen by Law & Crime.
The 12-year-old reportedly informed his mother that the beating had occurred after the women forced the boys to drag a mattress outside, wash the dishes, and move a couch in the home, the affidavit added.
Police said the children’s mother, 30, contacted them on October 15 to report the women for abusing her three sons while they were left in their trusted care while the mother had gone to work, police said.
The three boys had visibly distressing injuries with “bruises and whelps on their buttocks and all down their legs”, said the police statement.
In the affidavit seen by Law & Crime, it is alleged that Blevins came into a room where the oldest child was lying down and callously started to lash him with a “thick belt”. The eldest reportedly said that the women struck him over 20 times with the spiked belt and spiked stick.
The mother of the three boys is said to have moved in with Cook after the family became desperate after becoming homeless, according to the Law & Crime report.
Cook also invited Blevins to move in after the family had settled, wrote the outlet. But the mother reportedly admitted concerns about Blevins due to the 19-year-old having a history of mental health issues, it added.
