• Nakina stepfather faces two counts of felony child abuse for using horse training whip, walking cane and electrical cord to assault 14-year-old.

By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer

Living along Happy Home Church Road has been a misnomer for two boys in the Nakina community. Their lives appear to have been anything but happy based on recent child abuse reports.

A 14-year-old boy was attacked twice recently by his stepfather – once on Oct. 16 and again on Nov. 22. The November incident required medical attention for the child. He was beaten with a horse training whip and the stepfather’s walking cane, according to Sheriff’s Detective Trina Godwin.

The 6-year-old brother of the teenager has been “mistreated,” but there are not sufficient grounds at this time to bring additional charges, the detective added.

Marc E. Patterson, 39, of the 1900 block of Happy Home Road, was arrested last week on two counts of felony child abuse.

Patterson is charged with using an electrical cord to beat the 14-year-old on Oct. 16, the warrant showed. The most serious beating of the two involved the whip and cane.

Godwin said the teen was taken for emergency-room treatment at Columbus Regional Healthcare. The boy had “at least six whip marks” on his back, an injury to his left arm, a “goose egg” above his left eye, plus “knots and goose eggs” on his head, the detective stated.

Godwin said the head and forehead injuries were caused by Patterson’s walking cane. The horse training whip caused the back and arm injuries, she added.

The boy’s mother was called to the hospital in the November incident, and denied that Patterson beat her son until she was taken to the cubicle where the boy was being treated, Godwin noted.

The detective said the two boys told their mother they didn’t tell her anything about previous abuse because they had been told if they said anything about the attacks they would be beaten more severely.

Godwin said Patterson said he is “legally blind” and uses the cane for assistance in his daily movements.