Mar 20, 2008 11:56 pm US/Eastern
Mother, Boyfriend Charged In Middleboro Abuse Case
D.S.S. Will Review Whether It Missed Signs Of Abuse In The Case
BOSTON (AP) ―
It now appears a 7-year-old child was tortured for months after the state's Department of Social Services was alerted the boy might be in danger.
Now the mother is in custody, and DSS is accepting blame.
WBZ is not identifying the Middleboro mother in order to protect her son's identity.
"Our investigation has shown she had some knowledge of it, and that's why she's been charged and arrested," Middleboro Police Chief Gary Russell told WBZ.
Her boyfriend, David Privette of Boston, is accused to whipping the 7-year-old with a belt – and burning the boy on his genitals on a number of occasions.
"I've been here 30 years and I have not seen a worse case of child abuse since I've been here," Middleboro Police Lt. T. David Mackiewicz said.
Police say the abuse was first reported to DSS last December by a school nurse. In that report, the boy said his mother and her boyfriend David beat him with a belt.
The nurse said, "Let's call your mom."
"No," the boy said. "I don't want no more whippins."
"What can a 7-year-old do to defend himself against abuse?" Mackiewicz wondered. "It's torture. That's exactly what it was, torture."
DSS has been keeping tabs on this family since 2002, and just last year an investigator paid the mother and boyfriend a visit but reportedly found nothing.
On Thursday, the DSS commissioner conceded mistakes were made in this case.
"The red flags went up where we were responding to them, and we could have been more aggressive," Commissioner Angelo McLain said. "So this is on us."
Both Privette and the boy's mother are charged with abusing this boy. Each is being held without bail.
DSS says it gets about 75,000 reports of physical abuse or neglect every year. Of those, 25,000 are deemed to be abuse.
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