The girl lived with her mother, Jennifer Denen, and Denen’s live-in boyfriend, Clarence Reed, in a home in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
When asked her name, the four year old girl told police she was called ”IDIOT”.
Police say she was called an “idiot” so often and for so long that it was the word that sprung to her young mind.
Police arrested the mother and her boyfriend last week after social workers reported the abuse.
They said the 30-year-old mother knew the beating her boyfriend was doling out to the child on a regular basis but never sought medical treatment.
The girl’s injuries included bruises on her buttocks, her lower back, her leg, police said. She had a blackened eye, a swollen cheek and a bruise on her forehead. She also had scars on her back that had started to heal, indicating the abuse had been going on for a while.
In addition to it all, the girl was also severely malnourished, police said.
Denen told police that Reed, 47, hit the child with a plastic bat; he said it was a wooden paddle. He admitted to zip tying the little girl to her bed after he found her climbing on the kitchen cabinet.
He also acknowledged to calling her “Idiot” but said it was “in jest”
The couple was charged with domestic battery, permitting child abuse, and endangering the welfare of a minor. Both remain in the Garland County Jail with a next court date of September 27, 2016.
The child is now in state custody where she is healing from her physical injuries. The psychological injuries will likely take years to heal.
