Warning Graphic: Dad Records Video of Alleged Child Abuse
[gtxvideo vid=”z0ABXMDd” playlist=”” pid=”Bbt3TRDe” thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/z0ABXMDd.jpg” vtitle=”child abuse”]
CHARLOTTE, NC — A father is expected in court Thursday for a custody hearing after he recorded video of what he says shows a woman abusing his children.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say the mother of those children, Chermicka Smith, is in jail for three counts of child abuse.
The video shows a woman carrying a baby by his leg and repeatedly spanking him.
A voice behind the camera says, “Don’t hit him no more.”
That voice is Dominic Davidson, the two-year-old boy’s father.
Davidson says the woman in the video is Smith, the mother of three of his children and three other children ages 12 to eight months old.
Davidson’s attorney wouldn’t allow him to go into detail about the abuse so as to not harm his chances of getting his children back from the Department of Social Services.
However, at his home Wednesday, he was open.
He says he’s reported the abuse three times.
With no evidence, he says nothing helped.
Davidson tells WCCB Charlotte that’s why he secretly recorded the hitting last week.
One minute into the recording, the woman moved from the baby and appears to hit another child with a belt.
Davidson says that was his four-year-old.
He called police the next day.
Officers took the video, obtained warrants to arrest Smith for three counts of child abuse.
She turned herself in five days later.
Davidson says DSS has since taken his children.
He says they wouldn’t watch or take the footage.
It is common practice for DSS to decline to take video footage of abuse because there is that slight chance video can be edited.
Police did take the video, and Davidson says officers say they will hand it over to the District Attorney.
