Man charged with hitting son with board

A Bollinger County man is facing felony child abuse charges after an incident involving his teenage son.

Brian Elsworth of Gypsy, Missouri, is charged with hitting his son, 13, three times in the head with his hand and three more times on the buttocks with a piece of trim board.

The boy's mother, Dawn Conner, picked him up from Elsworth's house Sunday, and the boy "couldn't sit down well," according to a probable-cause statement filed in the case.

The boy told a sheriff's deputy he had been helping Elsworth put together a chicken pen when Elsworth started screaming at him he wasn't holding a board correctly, the statement said. The boy told the deputy Elsworth told him to go inside, then followed him to his room and struck him in the back of the head with his hand three times, knocking him onto the bed. He said Elsworth then took a piece of white trim and hit him with it three times, at which point the board broke, the statement said.

The boy said Elsworth, who had been yelling at him the whole time, asked whether it hurt. The boy said he answered "yes" and started to cry, according to the affadavit.

Photographs of the boy's injuries show "substantial" purple-and-red bruising, the statement said.

The boy also told the deputy of another incident from when he was younger and expressed fear about having to return to Elsworth's residence and having to see his father.

Conner told the deputy Elsworth had made comments in the past about how he "was going to make a man out of" his son.

Bond for Elsworth has been set at $15,000 cash or surety.

kwebster@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

Gypsy, MO