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Father charged with physically abusing his 8-year-old daughter

ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A father was arrested by police last month and he’s now in custody for the alleged beating of his daughter.

The father who is the defendant in this case made his initial appearance in District Court last month.

He is charged with one count of abuse of a child (involving domestic violence) and one count of 2nd degree assault (involving domestic violence), both class D felonies, punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to $5,000, but not less than $150 pursuant to A.S.C.A 47.0402, or both; and one count of private peace disturbance, a class A misdemeanor.

Bail is set at $5,000.

THE ALLEGATION

On Aug. 24, 2021, the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) received a phone call from a woman regarding an 8-year-old female who was physically abused by her father and had multiple injuries to her body.

Officers at the TPS advised the reporter to walk in with the 8-year-old victim at the TPS for further investigation.

Investigators met up with the victim and her mother soon after. According to the victim’s verbal statement, she told investigators that on Monday, Aug. 24 in the morning, her father (defendant) asked her to walk to the store to buy family groceries.

When she got back home she returned the change to her father. At the same time, her father noticed that the change she gave back did not fit with the amount of money that was used to buy the items.

Also, she had bought the wrong groceries from the store. That’s when her father got mad at her and was chasing her to go back and look for the money that she might have lost on the way home. So, the victim went with her mother to search for the money and it was on the ground in front of her aunt’s house.

The victim got back home and she went inside the house to get the item that she mistakenly bought to return it to the store.

That was when her father suddenly threw a slipper at her, so she ran outside and to the back of the house because she was scared. While running to the back of the house, her father saw her again and he attempted to throw something like a rock or coconut at her, but she couldn’t clearly see what it was.

She then ran in front of the church because she was so scared. She also stated while she was running away from her father, her mother called her to come back saying that her father would not beat her up. So the victim came back to the house and ran to her mother.

While the victim was standing in the back of her mother, her father immediately grabbed her and beat her with a belt. She couldn’t recall the number of times she was beaten. Her mother tried to stop the beating by grabbing the young girl and pulling her away from the defendant. The victim’s mother then went to the store and returned the wrong item, while the defendant continued beating the victim with the belt.

The victim also stated to investigators that there was this other time, her father beat her up so badly with a hard object but she doesn’t remember what it was.

Multiple injuries were observed on the victim’s back, left upper-arm, and her right thigh; such as skin bruises and the markings of the belt. Photos was taken by officers as evidence in the case.

The defendant was advised to come to the TPS for further investigation. Upon arrival at the TPS, he was Mirandized and he said he understood, and waived his rights. He agreed to give a statement and answer questions regarding the incident.

According to the defendant, he stated that he purposely and knowingly abused the victim due to her attitude after he told her to go buy something from the store and she didn’t listen.

It all started when she was asking for his phone but he told her to go to the store first then she could get the phone after. Shortly thereafter, the victim went to the store and came back with the wrong change. The defendant stated that he could see that she was mad at him for not giving her the phone.

That’s when he got mad and started beating her up with his belt. He wanted to teach her a lesson for not listening to what he said. The defendant also stated that it was never his intention to beat her up so badly but it just happened because he couldn’t control his temper.

The defendant told investigators that he hit his daughter (victim) with the belt five times which led to bruises and makings of the belt on her body. After beating her up, he felt bad, but he only beat her up to teach her a lesson for disobeying his command.