D.C. Mother Locked Up Burned, Bruised, Malnourished Young Son With Cerebral Palsy And No One Noticed

Betty T. Threatt, 27, is being accused of severely abusing her nine-year-old son. It’s for certain that she won’t win any mother of the year awards. Sadly, the boy appeared to be malnourished with bruises, welts, abrasions, and burn marks on his body, according to The Washington Post. He also had pieces of duct tape on his wrists and ankles, having been bound and held some where–a tortured life.

The boy’s father, Taurus Bulluck, 30, noticed this alleged abuse when Threatt dropped him off to visit. Bulluck rushed his battered son to Children’s National Medical Center, where doctors determined that the boy had 60 injuries, according to D.C. Superior Court documents. The doctors reported the abuse to police, and Threatt was taken into custody.

Threatt at first denied that she had harmed the boy, saying that the family puppy had caused his injuries, according to WUSA Channel 9. But her story fell apart.

According to police, the boy was kept between March and June 2014 by his mother and her then-boyfriend Lester O. Jackson locked in a bedroom for “misbehaving.” According to court documents, Betty T. Threatt was ashamed of her son for having cerebral palsy, and reportedly “hated” him, blaming the young child for a miscarriage she suffered.

The abused boy fell through the cracks in the system, his abuse going unnoticed for quite a while after his mother moved from Prince George’s County, Maryland, to the District of Columbia. Threatt neglected to register the boy in school; his grandmother became so concerned that she contacted social services, but the exact time line has not been specified.

The 9-year-old had a troubled life from the start. At age five, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy that mainly affected his left hand.

He was first raised by his mother, father, and his father’s mother. Bulluck informed a social worker that he “moved in and out” of the boy’s life during his formative years, eventually leaving the boy with Threatt, saying that he “thought he could trust her.”

But, according to a social services report, Bulluck lost contact with Threatt after she began dating Lester O. Jackson when she moved. Jackson reportedly changed the locks on a bedroom door so that the boy couldn’t escape. Threatt only let Bulluck speak to his son on a speaker phone and refused to give him her new address.

Threatt eventually admitted that she whipped her son with a belt and states that she and Jackson bound his wrists and feet with duct tape.

Betty T. Threatt and Lester O. Jackson were eventually charged with multiple counts of first-degree child abuse.

Threatt is to appear before Judge Rhonda Reid Winston in D.C. Superior Court today; prosecutors expect her to enter into a plea deal. Lester O. Jackson refused a plea deal and is expected to go to trial in July.

What would cause someone to severely abuse their own flesh and blood? Threatt told social workers that she too came from a horribly abusive background. According to Betty Threatt, she was born to a crack-addicted mother. At the tender age of nine – the same age her son is now – Threatt was placed at an inpatient psychiatric facility for treatment. Why? According to social service documents, she committed the horrifying act of animal abuse by placing the family cat in a microwave and turning it on. It’s not known if the cat survived. Many abusers, such as Jeffrey Dahmer, started out by abusing small animals.

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, according to The Washington Post, Threatt told a court-appointed psychologist that she was placed on medication and receives social security disability. She stated the following, according to The Washington Post.

“I got meds for my anger and therapy.”

Threatt alleges that she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend and, by age 13, had her first of five children. Threatt’s mother denies that she was raped, and Threatt’s family members stated that she did not abuse her children until she met former boyfriend Lester O. Jackson.

Do you think that someone from a highly abusive background is likely to be abusive?

In another case of horrific child abuse, reported in the Inquisitr, a 13-year-old girl was locked in a cold, unfinished basement by her mother and step father. The girl went to school in a diaper, and the girl was covered with feces and not permitted to use a bathroom, shower, or sit on the family’s furniture. The mother and step father are charged with child neglect.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons/AgnosticPreachersKid]