An Oklahoma man viciously beat his girlfriend’s son on Saturday, Dec. 16, to punish him for opening a Christmas present early.
Bridgette Payne, the boy’s mother, left the child with boyfriend Wesley McCollum when she went to do holiday shopping, according to her Facebook post.
When the mom returned home, McCollum told her that Ayrian, her son, was sent to bed early for unwrapping a gift which was under a Christmas tree.
All was well until Payne went to check on the sleeping boy. She found her boy covered in bruises on his arms, back, and face, as well as a handprint on his cheek, KTLA reported.
“Words cannot explain seeing your baby like this and having no clue what happened,” Payne wrote in the Facebook post. “‘Wesley hurt me bad mama,’ is all he kept saying.”
Payne said she ‘absolutely’ lost it when she saw her boy and broke down in tears. Then she called the cops.
Officers arrived at the woman’s home shortly after 10 p.m. and arrested her boyfriend on charges of child abuse and child neglect, KJRH reported.
“I cannot sleep because I imagine my innocent child going thru this and I wasn’t there to protect him,” Payne wrote on Facebook. “For a grown man to punch a child over and over and slap him and beat him with a belt ALL over is no man at all. He is the lowest scum on earth.”
According to Payne, the McCollum tried to explain that he punished the boy “to teach him a lesson” because he “needed to learn to listen.”
Payne said that the violence was completely unexpected. Since she started dating McCollum 10 months ago she never saw him angry, she wrote on Facebook.
“I never EVER thought he would do this or I would of never been with him,” Payne wrote. “Plain and simple.”
Payne said she was in an abusive relationship with the children’s dad until finally getting away two years ago when “he almost killed me in front of this son!”
After leaving her husband, she vowed to never get into an abusive relationship, but ended up in one anyway.
“There is an evil inside of some people no one sees and that’s how this happened,” Payne wrote on Facebook. “If I could change my son places in a heartbeat I would.”
After sharing her story, thousands of people responded with messages of support. The post has since been shared more than 8,000 times and liked 12,000 times as of Dec, 20.
“To everyone who has been there for us, thank y’all so much!” Payne wrote. “I will keep you updated as we go through court dates and stuff, hopefully justice will be served so he can’t hurt another child!”