Man accused of beating step daughter, handcuffs her to radiator
VIDEO - Connecticut police have arrested a 45-year-old New Haven man accused of beating his 9-year-old stepdaughter and handcuffing her to a radiator...
Connecticut police have arrested a 45-year-old New Haven man accused of beating his 9-year-old stepdaughter and handcuffing her to a radiator.
Police said Craig Tracy Williams called police on Saturday to report that his stepdaughter had run away. About an hour later, police found the girl in Edgewood Park.
She had bruises on her face and a cut on her forehead, according to police. She was taken to the hospital and investigators learned what police called disturbing details of regular beatings the girl sustained at the hands of her stepfather.
The girl told police that when she was 8-years-old, she missed an entire year of school because Williams slammed her into the ground and broke her hip. She also said she had been struck with a baseball bat, a flashlight and leather belt and much of the alleged abuse happened in the basement, out of her mother’s sight, according to the police report.
Part of the abuse included being handcuffed to a radiator in the family’s apartment, according to New Haven police. “Her left ankle had scarring on it,” the police report stated. “The entire circumference was scarred, she said he puts them on really tight.”
Investigators said the abuse might have gone on for years. Police arrested Williams at a nearby gas station after tracking him down using his cell phone.
They said he was ready to flee with his wife and four other children. Detectives from the New Haven Police Department’s major crimes division have taken over the investigation and have contacted the state Department of Children and Families.
Williams has been charged with second-degree assault and risk of injury to a child, according to court records. He is being held in jail in lieu of a $500,000 bail.
