A 24-year-old stepmother in West Virginia stands accused of abusing her stepdaughter. Police say she beat the 7-year-old with a belt after the child said her punishment did not hurt.
Authorities took MaCayla Ashton Johnson into custody and charged her with one count of child abuse by a parent or guardian creating a substantial risk of bodily injury, court records show.
On Sept. 15, a Randolph County Schools employee contacted the county sheriff’s office to report possible abuse of a student, according to a report from The Inter-Mountain, a local news website.
The employee said the victim’s father had called and said there had been “an incident the evening before that ‘went too far’ and he wanted to let her know before the teachers noticed.”
The father reportedly said that while Johnson was punishing his daughter for not listening, the child stated that “it didn’t hurt.” Johnson then “commanded that [the victim] should feel pain and grabbed a belt.”
Later, a school employee spotted bruises on the girl’s arms, hand and lower back and referred the matter to Child Protective Services, the newspaper reported. The sheriff’s office had the employee photograph the victim’s injuries and send them to investigators.
During an interview with detectives, Johnson allegedly admitted she hit the child with a belt. She said she usually spanked the girl with an “open palm,” but she had “been going through a lot” after a family member died and felt “bombarded,” according to a report from Weston, West Virginia-based CBS affiliate WDTV.
She also admitted she had disciplined the girl with a belt twice before, explaining that she would “only use about 4 to 5 inches of the tip of the belt opposite the buckle end,” the station reported.
Johnson reportedly described the child moving between the toilet and bathtub during the incident and asked the victim, “If [the] punishment don’t hurt, why are you fighting it?”
When detectives asked how the child got the bruises on her arms, hands and back, Johnson allegedly said the marks came from the girl trying to block the belt strikes, Morgantown, West Virginia-based radio station WAJR reported.
Johnson appeared in court on Oct. 17 and pleaded not guilty to the abuse charge. Officials are holding her at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $2,000 cash-only bond. It was not immediately clear when her next court appearance is scheduled.
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