Boy: Mom's boyfriend beat me daily

The Eagle-Tribune

By Jim Patten
jpatten@eagletribune.com

LAWRENCE — A hospitalized 9-year-old boy told investigators yesterday that he suffered daily beatings by his mother's boyfriend.

The boyfriend, Thoun Rin, 31, was ordered held without bail yesterday pending a court hearing later this week on whether he poses a danger to the public and should be jailed pending trial on child assault charges.

The child was hospitalized Friday with two black eyes, a cut on the back of his head, and bruises about his body. Photos showed the boy's eyes were nearly swollen shut.

Rin was arrested Friday at their 15 Packard St. home, and held over the weekend on $250,000 cash bail. He was not supposed to be in the house, police said.

Speaking to detectives in the hospital yesterday, the boy said that the last beating happened Friday. He said Rin had asked him where the baby wipes were and when he told Rin he didn't know, Rin chased him upstairs into his room and beat him.

"He told the investigators he kind of fell asleep. He may have lost consciousness. We don't know," police Chief John Romero said yesterday.

"He struck him at least 10 times about the head," Romero said.

The boy initially told his mother he was injured when he fell while jumping up and down on his bed with his little brother, and that is the story his mother told police Friday.

"She told us she did not believe her boyfriend did it," Romero said.

But Saturday, the boy admitted the truth to her while she visited him in the hospital, and she called police and told them she had more information.

"She said her son told her Rin did it and she believes him," Romero said. "This kid is traumatized."

Rin had previously been ordered to leave the house by the state Department of Social Services, now the Department of Children and Families, because of previous alleged incidents of abuse involving the boy.

"We believe he has been back in the house since about Christmastime," Romero said.

Rin was charged with assault and battery on a child under 14 causing bodily injury and assault and battery on a household member.

Yesterday, Lawrence District Court Judge Thomas Brennan ordered Rin held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing Thursday.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick told the court that although Rin had no criminal record in Massachusetts, he had been arrested on drunken-driving charges in Nashua, N.H., and also had been arrested on drug and gun charges in North Carolina.

Police were attempting to learn more about Rin and those arrests, Romero said.

Kenneth Witham, the court-appointed lawyer for Rin, told the court "for the record, my client denies the charges."

Rin faces five years in prison or two and a half years in the house of correction if he is convicted on the assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury charge, and two and a half years in the house of correction and up to a $1,000 fine for conviction on the charge of assault and battery on a household member.

The boy's biological father left for Cambodia on the day of the last beating, but has been contacted and is returning as soon as he can get a flight back, Romero said.

The Department of Children and Families has taken custody of the boy and his 3-year-old brother, Romero said.

He said police were not aware of any other family members living in the area.