Father Accused of Beating Daughter

New Haven police have arrested a 45-year-old New Haven man accused of brutally beating his 9-year-old stepdaughter with a baseball bat, handcuffing her to a radiator and several other forms of abuse for several years.

Police said Craig Tracy Williams called police on Saturday to report that his stepdaughter had run away.

About an hour later, police found the girl in Edgewood Park shortly after 1 p.m. Her face was swollen and bruised. There was a cut on her forehead and scars at varying stages of healing, according to police.

She was taken to the hospital and investigators learned what police called disturbing details of regular beatings the girl sustained at the hands of her stepfather since she was around 3 years old.

Before the girl ran away on Saturday, Williams had gotten mad at the little girl because she would not eat her food. It was left over from her baby brothers and had been drooled on, she told police, and she tried to hide it under a dresser.

William then hit her in the forehead with a baseball bat, struck her legs with a belt and punched her, the girl told police.

The girl, who is 4-feet-tall and weighs 60 pound, told police she is fed one meal per day. The food is left over and she has to wait for Williams to come home before she can eat.

The girl told police that when she was 8-years-old, she missed an entire year of school because
Williams slammed her into the ground and broke her hip.

She was taken to the hospital two days after breaking her hip and Williams told her to tell the doctors that she fell while riding her bicycle down the stairs, according to police.

According to the police report, the girl told officers that Williams often keeps her from school because of her injuries.

"That was a tragic incident, very hard to capture something like that and know about it, that's the key, said Reginald Mayo, Superintendent of Schools in New Haven.

Mayo said there were no red flags when the girl left school for a year.

"Whenever we get information that a child is home, we've got about ten truant officers that go out and knock on doors.  There is a process they go thorugh.  You can refer it to the court if the youngster is habitually absent more than 20 days," Mayo said.

The girl also told police Williams had been abusing her since she was 3 and struck her with a baseball bat, a flashlight and a leather belt.

Williams, she told police, has also put her in a large trunk, closed the lid and put more trunks on top so she could not get out. It was difficult to breath inside, she told them. She also told police that Williams has cut her back with a long silver-bladed knife and locked her in a closet when the family has left the apartment. 

Police said much of the alleged abuse happened in the basement, out of her mother's sight.

Part of the abuse included being handcuffed to a radiator by her wrists and ankles in the "junk room" off the kitchen in the family's apartment, according to New Haven police.

"Her left ankle had scarring on it," the police report stated. "The entire circumference was scarred, she said he puts them on really tight."

At night, Williams makes the girl stand in the corner of his bedroom, she told police, them makes her sit in a bathtub of cold water.

She also had two knife scars on her stomach and told a paramedic that Williams had cut her, according to the police report.  

Police arrested Williams at a nearby gas station after tracking him down using his cell phone. They said he was ready to flee with his wife and four other children.

Detectives from the New Haven Police Department's major crimes division have taken over the investigation and have contacted the state Department of Children and Families.

The children were taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital to be evaluated.

Williams has been charged with second-degree assault and risk of injury to a child, according to court records.

He is being held in jail in lieu of a $500,000 bail.

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