'Tell your daddy that's what happens': Mother sent ex 'torture videos' of their baby
WARNING - DISTURBING CONTENT: A young boy was removed from his mother's care in the US after she allegedly posted videos of her torturing the infant in an effort to get back at his father.
Texas mother Janelle Peterkin, 23, was charged with child endangerment after sending the videos of her torturing her one-year-old son to her former boyfriend.
In a video a woman is seen hitting her toddler as he sits strapped in a car seat, at one point wrapping the child's head in plastic bag and stuffing it in his mouth.
That was in addition to texts saying the boy would end up in "a casket", while in one instance she even holds a cigarette lighter to his hand to burn it, KIAH reports.
When the boy's aunt Ra’Neicha Broadnax, who lives in the state of Virginia, saw the videos she called the police in Texas but she said they were apathetic at first.
Following her eventual arrest, the mother told police in Texas she made the videos 90 days ago in reaction to her ex-boyfriend – the baby's father – moving on with a new woman.
In several videos a woman is heard off camera speaking to the child while recording.
In one instance the woman places a plastic bag over the baby's head and stuffs it in his mouth.
At other times she whacks the baby on the chest hard and repeatedly so he wails out in pain.
"Tell your daddy that's what happens when you sit around and play with people," a woman is heard in one video telling the baby.
"That's too bad. That's too bad, yep, I felt the same way," the woman is heard telling the baby that is so young it has only two bottom front teeth.
"Say 'Dad, you should have just left my mama out your bulls***.' Say that."
Before making the videos, Ms Peterkin had threatened to harm the child if her ex did not respond.
Last Thursday the ex was arrested and thrown in jail at which point his new girlfriend opened his phone to find Ms Peterkin's number blocked.
When she unblocked the number, the phone was hit with 300 texts and 60 video messages in an hour-long wave.
That's when the torture videos were uncovered and Ms Broadnax, the father's sister, was contacted immediately.
"My brother is incarcerated," Ms Broadnax said.
"His girlfriend was snooping through his phone and she saw he had her [Ms Peterkin] on the 'Do Not Disturb' features, so she took it off and the phone vibrated for an hour straight."
Ms Broadnax said she called the Humble Police Department in Texas where she knew her nephew and his mother had been living, telling them to check on the boy who she thought might be dead.
After explaining what she saw in the videos, Ms Broadnax said the Texan officers did nothing.
At a loss, the aunt posted the videos on Facebook, setting off a firestorm and police from across the US started to contact her.
"After I put the post up, someone from New York Police Department called me and from all different states, police were calling," Ms Broadnax said.
Eventually a detective from Humble made contact and visited the mother and child.
While the child showed no physical signs of injury or abuse, police arrested Ms Peterkin after watching the videos.
She was slapped with a court order preventing her from going within 60 metres of her son.
She was later released from jail on US $15,000 bond and also charged with deadly weapon and assault of a family member by impeding breath.
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