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Beulah Man Accused Of Child Abuse After Spanking Boy With A Belt, Leaving Bruises
March 10, 2021
A Beulah man has been accused of beating his child with a belt, leaving bruises all over his body, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Bryan Matthew Harrell, 37, of Pensacola, is charged with felony child cruelty. He remained in the Escambia County Jail Wednesday morning.
Deputies responded to a child abuse complaint at Harrell’s home where they were met at the front door by an adult and the young victim. The deputies noted obvious injuries to the child in his report including bruising on the child’s arm, back and right side.
“Daddy did it with a belt,” the victim stated, according to the report.
After incident between other people in the house (their names, ages and relationships are redacted from the report), Harrell got out of the shower, grabbed a belt and started to spank the child, the report states. A witness told deputies Harell hit the child more than five times.
Harrell then told the child to go sit on the couch, where he spanked the boy again, the sheriff’s office said.
The report continues that Harll told someone to soak the child in a hot epsom salt bath to reduce the bruising.
Comments
33 Responses to “Beulah Man Accused Of Child Abuse After Spanking Boy With A Belt, Leaving Bruises”
I don’t agree with the bruises all over part… ..but I sure could dance around my momma like crazy when she had a switch. Anyways….you young parents need to be whipping your children every time they mess up. I didnt. I worked all the time. Wanted to be a happy time when I did see her. I messed up. Should have been whooping but. Im paying for it now. Beyond awful
@ Melvin holland
Your intelligence is diminished with your narrative
Note: the man was arrested because he did nothing wrong…right?
Change your ways or go to jail
I am a mother of six boys and I have never had to use a belt on my kids there are other options that really work and I have raised some of the best kids my youngest is now 16 and my oldest 24 and they are very great men young men now with some simple guidance and love and respect you can teach them better than any belt or violence go to some parenting classes.
@ Wayne you sound like your a doctor and far from one I’m sure . my great grandkids are smarter than you will ever be. your very rude to correct me about anything . I’m older and wiser and smarter than you will ever be. if anyone needs help sir you sir sure do. if kids will stop moving around while being spanked that wouldn’t happen. it sir would be on there butt where it belongs.
@Barbara Agerton—-No ma’am. Not crazy not do I enjoy the fact I was beaten. Unfortunately, you seem to miss the point as is so frequently the case with you bleeding heart type’s. I do however, enjoy the fact that I learned a great sense of right and wrong, responsibility, discipline, and various other attributes of good character. Some things many of the fragile heathens you champion will never know. Even after a lifetime. It also taught me respect, especially for my elders, even if they are just old fools.
There is a difference in correcting a child and abusing the child. If it is done in anger or embarrassment then it is cruelty. You have let you own emotions take the stage instead of discipline. I spanked my child, with a belt, but only when I was calm. We could discuss what he did wrong and why it was wrong and discipline was needed. Then I would calmly spank him and then after I did, I would pull him up and love on him and ask him if he wanted to pray. He’d wipe his eyes and we’d pray. I never spanked for any offense other than hardness of heart issues. Deliberately disobeying. Lying. Things like that. Things that took him out from under God’s protection.
@Don Neese …Your fore-fathers also believed in not running off with another woman from your church too
There is a difference between correcting a child and child abuse.
I slapped one of my grandsons with my flat hand one time (I was 70 and he was 15 at the time)!; he looked stunned but immediately stopped his angry and destructive outburst over a small matter. Just like he was taught in school he said he would call the police on me for hitting him. (He never did and I was not arrested) Kids are wrongly indoctrinated by today’s society that they are so special and fragile – they can get away with everything and never have to face any consequences.
@Chris, we’ll said and Amen.
No wonder there are so many “crazy” grownups, they love the idea their parents beat them, with whatever???? What in the hey is goin on here? you enjoyed the fact that you were beat…
All the feel good parents like @Wayne, I was whipped with whatever was handy by my grandfather. Fan belt, electrical cord, backhand, belt (strap). In every single instance, I knew I had done wrong and accepted my punishment. At the dinner table, he would look at me a certain way and I would straighten up and wonder what I was doing wrong.
At the same time, he was a great man, a millionaire at 25 yrs old in 1956. I felt more love, kindness, and nurturing from that man than any child could ever receive. He’d be put in jail in today’s age because of people who have their belief system rooted in emotion instead of reality. I have the same compassion, kindness, and caring heart for others as a grown up now. My sense of justice is about as extreme as it could be. People who are enemies of America are destroying this nation with their liberal yuppy beliefs and the children of today are evidence of it.
This…of course, was written to parents who loved their children.
Proverbs 13:24
He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
Proverbs 23:13
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Proverbs 23:14
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
My Forefathers believed very strongly in those applications.
None of us know what happened except the child got a belt on them. What caused it? How old is the child? A 3yo wouldn’t deserve it. A 16 yo who’s a hellion, very well may. Was the dad mad at something else & took his anger on the child? None of us know.
I have a good friend I’ve had for almost 30 years
I would not trade Him for nothing in this
material world. He shared a short story with Me among others I was gifted to hear. When he was in the Navy 60 years ago THE older Recrute was not honest and fair with him He thought for a short time about it and had the Right and Fair response I thought also
Sir You will have to sleep also in a little while. My Question now is if you don’t LOVE them How can you expect to keep them
Is this serious? When I was growing up, I’d pray for a belt. My mom and dad would Grab anything near them or make me go cut my own switch. My dad looked like Indiana Jones with a belt in his hand. But you know what, I learned how to mind, respect my elders, and be a positive contributor to society. Whip them hard and whip them often.
It is so sad that you can’t punish your children this day and age for doing wrong. Back in the day I would get my butt tore up by my mama with a switch and when my pop got home, after he worked all day in the weather being cold or hot if what I done was so wrong my pop would take a belt to me. . I was not abused by no means. These parents today don’t know what real parenting is all about. I will say this, by getting my butt tore when I was a kid it made me a better person and it made me to be more respectful of the human beings around me .
@ Melvin holland
Sir, seek mental health. people with your mentality are the problem.
Your trying to say the child deserved the beating. That resulted in welts and bruises.
Trying to control the child?
Intelligence is how you control a child,compassion, do not ever paint a picture of father comes home tired as an excuse.
You seem to be very keen on that scenario
If it happened to you I feel for you.
If your parent raised to to think its ok because dad is tired..your parent needs to be jailed..and would.
Seek help immediately
I am serious
@Ensley boy, I couldn’t agree more!!!
I say reserve judgment until all the facts are out, everyone wants to blame the parents when a child does something wrong but they don’t want the parents to discipline their children.
My Dad would make this guy look like an amateur. Belts, small limbs not switches, fist, boot or anything else that was handy. It was and is against the law to “beat” a child with anything. My wife and I raised a terrific kid that never was switched, beaten, slapped or hit.
. ..and another thing. It CLEARLY states that he put the child in a hot epsom salt bath to reduce the bruising he caused which included areas on his arm, back, and side… (Not his butt) He also went back and starting hitting him a second time. THAT IS CHILD ABUSE!!!
Responding to JTV:: “Time out and feelings have slowly moved our good old southern manners to yankee rudeness. The belt is the perfect tool for any child rearing parent… or paddle for school.”
First of all, “good old southern manners” has been out the window for many-many years. As a born and raised southerner… I’ve met more polite “yankees” than I ever have a southern gentleman.
Plus, It’s the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s kids that stopped corporal punishment (for the most part. This doesn’t mean everyone did) So, the generational results are how the previous generations raised them. Plus, if individuals knew how to properly reinforce positive behavior and replace negative behavior then they wouldn’t have to resort to physical harm.
I get more appalled every day at some of the older generations validating child abuse. You should never discipline a child in anger. That’s not correcting them. That’s literally you releasing your emotions. . . But then when a child does the same they get spanked again. No wonder so many people are needing mental health help nowadays.
There is a difference between spanking a child and BEATING a child.Sometimes tempers just get out of control.
Beating a child with a belt twice is child abuse.
Bruises and welts is normal?
If any of you twits think its the norm…your sick
You are the problem, you think there is nothing wrong with it.
You are just like him…now whine whine whine
Dont back track..just whine and cover your abusing worthless being
You are not normal by any standard..now whine some more
My parents loved me and I still had a healthy fear of the belt! I don’t consider myself a victim of child abuse ever. Just got corrected when necessary. With that being said, I was never beaten out of anger. There is a right way and definitely a wrong way to discipline. Parents should know the difference.
Better a belt now than a juvenile delinquent later…
-JTV- amen! A lot of our parents now days are afraid to discipline just for fear of family services getting involved or sometimes sticking their noises in places of no concern. My growing up, Mom did most of the disciplines and you did not want Dad to ever get involved. It’s too late when un-respectable teens or twenty’s are being disciplined by the courts. Just saying
Now we raise Snowflakes getting Trophies.
sorry but I have to chime in on this one. sometimes fathers are tired from working all day and to come home have your child disrepect you ? and I’m sure the child has done it many times before and he was trying to get him under control so he doesn’t get worse. then the father goes to jail for doing what he knows is best for the child.? seems like you can’t teach your kids these days to behave and show respect . the father knows he will end up in prison or worse in later years. I say bring back the belt and stop all this kids are out of hand these days. sounds like a good father to me. release him from jail.
I agree with most about spankings and my mom used the belt on me at times (my dad only used his hand and raised voice) but bruises all over his body is a bit much! Spankings are meant to be applied to the buttock any where above that area is a beating. I raised my son and daughter in the same way…but replaced the belt with a paddle. Both of them turned out to be wonderful adults.
Just because our Mom and Dads did that to us doesn’t mean it is right to beat us with belts and switches… It was child abuse then, and it is for this man too. There are other ways to rear children, most parents take their anger and frustration out on a child instead of trying to curb the real problem…you cannot FORCE anyone to do anything. It is your illusion of control… Work out your own Mommy-Daddy issues and you won’t need to beat your children…they will listen to you.
Good lord, my mom would have been in prison a long time ago. I’m not saying he’s right or wrong, but our world is definitely different now. There used to be yes ma’am, no ma’am, please and thank you. Now it’s 25-year olds punching and spitting on granny at the store. Time out and feelings have slowly moved our good old southern manners to yankee rudeness. The belt is the perfect tool for any child rearing parent… or paddle for school.
The belt used to be the norm.
Spare the rod, spoil the child; Solomon.
I’ll take a strap over a rod any day; hands down.
Too bad they don’t have epsonsalt on commissary..!Hope
He gets no
Relief!!