A woman was arrested after striking her baby, causing the infant to violently hit the ground because she was “mad” at her child’s father — and it was all caught on video.
Hanna Winch, a 21-year-old resident of Peru, Indiana, was arrested after admitting that she slapped her 10-month-old infant son so hard, she sent him slamming into the floor. Making matters worse, she did it on video — all because she was mad at the baby’s father. Police initially became aware of the incident when they were asked to perform a welfare check at Winch’s house due to a complaint of a woman beating a small child on video, Fox 59 reported.
“Officers received information of the existence of a video of an adult female who had battered the child and that the battery was captured on video,” a press release from the Peru Police Department explained, according to 44 News. “As officers were conducting the initial investigation, the video of the child being battered was released via social media, resulting in numerous reports to the Peru Police Department and the Indiana Department of Child Services.”
Authorities located the 10-month-old infant and Winch, Fox 6 reported. Thankfully, the infant was uninjured, according to WTHR, and he was safely placed with family members as an investigation into the alleged abuse was opened. Meanwhile, the video that showed Winch striking the baby began circulating online, causing a subsequent flood of reports to authorities from the concerned public as police continued their investigation.
According to a police report, the initial complaint about the abuse and the existence of the video came from the baby’s paternal grandparents, who told police Winch recorded the footage and sent it to their son, the baby’s father, during a video chat with him. The infant’s dad then forwarded it to them. The 13-second silent clip, which shows Winch beating her son, was first shared online in a Facebook post by Joel Urbin, who said he was the paternal grandfather. It was later taken down, along with other posts showing the incident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HMWAPlAT44
In the footage, Winch and the father appear to be on a split-screen video call, during which Winch strikes the baby hard, hitting him on the left side of his face and sending him sprawling across the floor in only a diaper. The father can only watch helplessly as his child is abused before Winch briefly turns the camera toward her face, the screen flashes to black, and the message “Video chat ended” appears.
In a caption that accompanied the video on social media, Urbin criticized the Department of Child Services, according to Daily Mail. “This is cps at it’s best,” he wrote. “This 10-month-old my grandson gets to stay with this piece of work,” he added, to which a woman, claiming to be the baby’s great aunt, responded, “She shoved him so hard he face planted on the carpet when he was already crying! Why? Because she was mad.”
After receiving the video, officers questioned Winch, who confirmed it was her in the footage. She claimed she had struck her infant son “out of frustration” because the boy’s father “had refused to come get” him, the police report said. She also alleged that she had attempted suicide days earlier. She was charged with felony domestic battery and felony intimidation and held on $10,000 bail at Miami County Jail, according to Miami County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Christel Dziengel.
What kind of mother physically harms her child in an attempt to manipulate and hurt the child’s father? The fact that she recorded it makes it even worse. One can only wonder what her son will think when he’s old enough to understand and he sees the footage of his own mother striking him as he sat helpless on the floor. Hopefully, the clip is all the evidence his father’s family needs to prove this woman can’t be trusted with the care of this innocent infant. She doesn’t need custody — she needs therapy.
