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Stepfather Found Guilty of Child Abuse After Florida Restaurant Employee Saved Child with Note

2022-06-09T09:29:20.336Z


A stepfather in Florida has been convicted of child abuse after a restaurant employee noticed worrying signs and used a covert note to ask a boy if he needed help. 


Child abuse is aggravated by lockdown in pandemic (2021) 3:35

(CNN) --

A stepfather in Florida has been convicted of child abuse after a restaurant employee noticed troubling signs and used a cover note to ask a boy if he needed help, the Florida County State's Attorney's Office announced Monday. of Orange.

A jury found Timothy Lee Wilson, 36, guilty of two counts of unlawful imprisonment of a child under 13, three counts of aggravated child abuse with a weapon, four counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of child neglect, the state attorney's office said in a statement.

An employee at Mrs. Potato restaurant in Orlando, Florida showed this note to a child when she was concerned about his safety.

The note says, "Need help? OK."

An investigation revealed that the boy was kept away from his family in a hotel room used for storage, regularly deprived of food and drink, and subjected to military-style exercises and other abuse, according to the statement.

Agents recovered several items used as weapons against the boy, the statement added.

  • How to reduce child abuse during the pandemic?

The 11-year-old boy and his family were at Mrs. Potato restaurant in Orlando on Jan. 1, 2021, when employee Flaviane Carvalho noticed that he was sitting isolated from his parents and siblings, who were depriving him of food and drink, and was bruised and scratched, CNN previously reported.

Carvalho stood behind the boy's parents and held up a note asking the boy if he was okay.

When the minor shook his head, he wrote a second note asking, "Do you need help?" he explained at a news conference.

After the boy nodded, Carvalho called his boss and then 911.

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After police arrived and questioned the boy, Wilson was arrested at the restaurant and the boy's mother, Kristen Swann, was taken into custody days later, Orlando investigators said.

Swann faces multiple felony charges of abuse, including neglect of a child, aggravated abuse and failure to report child abuse, records from the Orange County Clerk's Office show.

She pleaded not guilty.

CNN is contacting Swann's attorney for comment.

Wilson will be sentenced on August 19, 2022. CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment on the verdict.

What police found after the parents' arrests

When Swann and Wilson were arrested, another 4-year-old boy was taken from the home and found to have suffered no abuse, according to Orlando Police Detective Erin Lawler at the time of the arrests.

Lawler said the 11-year-old is the son of Swann and the 4-year-old is the son of Swann and Wilson.

After Carvalho called 911, the boy was taken to a hospital where he was found to be 20 pounds underweight for his age, according to Lawler, who added that the boy also had bruises in various stages of healing all over his body. Body.

Investigators later discovered that the boy had been "tortured" and "maliciously punished," the statement from the attorney's office said.

Prosecutors said the boy had been hung upside down from a door by his neck and feet and on one occasion handcuffed to a wheelbarrow.

"What this child had been through was torture," Lawler said.

"I'm a mother and seeing what that 11-year-old boy had to go through... It hits your soul."

"If Mrs. Carvalho hadn't said something when she saw him, that child probably wouldn't be with us for long," he added.

"I was used as a tool from God to help him," Carvalho told CNN affiliate WESH.

"We need to pay attention to those in need and step forward to do something to change the situation."

CNN's Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.

child abuse

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-06-09

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