JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida man is in jail Monday for allegedly beating his nine-year-old child after he and his little brother made in-application purchases on their iPad, according to Flagler County Deputies.
Andrew Atkerson was charged with child abuse without great bodily harm.
Deputies say Atkerson targeted his son in a Feb. 3 attack inside a Palm Coast home. During the attack, deputies say Atkerson picked his son up several times, throwing him into the walls, closets and other items in the home.
Deputies say his son suffered bruising on multiple parts of his body, including under both eyes. When his mother later picked him up from school, she saw what had happened and photographed the injuries.
Deputies say Atkerson was on probation for a felony battery arrest involving the child’s mother in 2017.
While utilizing investigative techniques at the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) Child Protection Team in Daytona Beach, Atkerson stated, “I might have over punished them a little bit.”
“No child should ever have to endure what this man did to his child. It appears this man has no ability to control his rage,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said. “Parents have the right to discipline their children but cannot go overboard, which happened in this case. A more appropriate discipline would have been to restrict access to the iPad or make them do chores around the house to pay for the items they ordered, not beat their child."
Atkerson was booked into the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and remains in jail on a $12,500 bond.