MIDDLETOWN — A Middletown mother secretly recorded her babysitter and said a video shows the woman physically and verbally abusing her then 10-month-old son.
News Center 7’s James Buechele spoke with parents Corrie and Derrick Beckett.
A family friend was babysitting for their son Owen three or four days a week back in October. But they became concerned after they said his behavior changed.
“We just need to know nothing’s going on because he wasn’t acting right,” Corrie Beckett said.
The Becketts hid the camera above the fireplace so they could see what was happening after they left for work.
Corrie Beckett said she was shocked by what she saw later that morning on her cellphone.
“When I watched the video, she was screaming at him, telling him to shut up, sitting on top of him,” she said.
We’re not naming the babysitter because she has not been charged with a crime.
“Get it under control. (bleep) dumb (bleep) baby, man! (Bleep) pathetic!”
In one clip, you can hear her screaming at Owen while he’s crying.
“Shut up!”
Later, she leans over and continues to yell at him.
“You gotta get over it!”
That’s when things get physical and she gets on top of the 10-month-old.
“Owen. Damn, man!”
Watching the video made Owen’s mother feel “instant anger and disgust and rage, honestly,” Beckett said.
She returned home that morning to confront the babysitter.
“She said, ‘is something going on with him?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, you tell me what’s going on here.’ She became defensive,” Beckett said.
The woman left and Beckett has not seen her since.
The Becketts filed a police report, saying Owen had a cut on his upper lip and there was blood on the sleeves of his pajamas.
“How could somebody do that? Somebody that you thought you knew?” Corrie Beckett said.
Prosecutors did not file charges. However, Middletown police have reopened the case after what Beckett showed them what she believes is clearer video.
“It’s not up to me to decide what she gets charged with, but I do believe she should be charged criminally,” she said.
Buechele reached out to the babysitter through Facebook for comment, but has not received a response.
Meanwhile, the Becketts are waiting and hoping charges will be filed.
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