When a 4-year-old boy’s mother came home from work Tuesday, he let her know that “the wall was broken,” according to a city police report.
After she saw the 3-foot-tall and 2-foot-wide indent in the wall, she asked him how it got there.
The boy said Eric Leigh got mad and slammed him against the wall for taking cookies from the kitchen, according to the police report.
Leigh, 27 of Coconut Creek, faces charges of child abuse. As of Wednesday evening, he remained in the Palm Beach County jail on $3,000 bail. Judge Joseph Marx ordered he have no contact with either the boy or a girl who was home at the time of the alleged abuse.
The report does not specify Leigh’s relationship to the children.
On Tuesday, police say the 4-year-old’s mother came to the police station to report the abuse. She said after the boy told her what happened, she asked Leigh in a text message why there was a dent in the wall and why her son was bruised all over his body.
“Ya I picked him up and pushed him in the wall,” the text read, according to the report. “I got upset and just pushed him into the wall I didn’t mean to hurt him but I did.”
A police officer examined the 4-year-old boy, who was covered in bruises from his head all the way down his back. He said the child “whispered to me so quietly I could not hear him.” When the boy repeated it louder, he said Leigh slammed him into the wall because he was mad.
“I got sprinkles and cookie from the kitchen,” the boy said.
Officers also spoke to the girl. She said she didn’t see anything, but she heard Leigh yelling at the boy and then several loud banging noises.
Leigh’s criminal history is mostly traffic-related in nature.
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