Man accused of beating child for opening Christmas present early

OKMULGEE, Okla. (WCMH) – An Oklahoma man is facing charges after police say he beat his girlfriend’s five-year-old son because the child opened a Christmas present early.

KJRH reports the mother’s boyfriend was watching her children while she went Christmas shopping over the weekend. When she got home, she saw bruises on the child’s arms and back, welts on his forehead and what appeared to be a handprint on his cheek.

In a Facebook post, the mother wrote, “Words cannot explain seeing your baby like this and having no clue what happened. I ran to him like any mother would do crying, hugging him, begging what happened. ‘Wesley hurt me bad mama,’ is all he kept saying.”

The mother told KJRH her boyfriend, 25-year-old Wesley McCollum, told her he was trying to teach the boy a lesson for opening a Christmas present early.

McCollum was arrested and charged with child neglect and child abuse, according to police records.

“For a grown man to punch a child over and over and slap him and beat him with a belt ALL over is no man at all,” she wrote. “He is the lowest scum on earth…”