'You're going to learn': Dad repeatedly suffocated infant to 'train' her not to cry, police say

A 36-year-old Kentucky father is accused of abusing his 3-month-old daughter, repeatedly suffocating the infant to stop her from crying and referring to the abuse as his way of “training” the child “like a dog.”

Shaun Christopher Webb was taken into custody this week and charged with 10 felony counts of first-degree child abuse, court records show.

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According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, a detective with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office responded Friday to a home in Walton after receiving video footage that allegedly showed Webb abusing his infant daughter two days earlier. The video, recorded by a nanny camera in the home’s living room, was timestamped between 9:51 and 9:58 a.m. on Aug. 19.

Webb was in the living room with his 2-year-old son and 3-month-old daughter when the alleged abuse began, according to the charging document. About two minutes into the recording, Webb allegedly removed the crying infant from a couch and laid her on the floor “where he then open-hand slaps the infant, who continues to cry,” the affidavit reads.

Seconds later, Webb allegedly grabbed the baby’s face and the back of her head with both hands in what the detective described as a “vice-like grip,” authorities say. The child’s limbs “dangled” as Webb pressed his hands inward for approximately 19 seconds, causing the infant to become quiet while she flailed her arms and legs, according to the affidavit.

Webb then allegedly placed his right hand over the baby’s nose and mouth, police said. She stopped crying but continued flailing her arms and legs for about 11 seconds, the detective wrote.

The defendant allegedly continued abusing the infant.

From the affidavit:

When the infant began to cry again, the above placed his right hand over the child’s nose and mouth causing the child to become quiet while flailing her arms and legs for approximately 13 seconds.
The infant again immediately started to cry, and so the above placed his right hand over the child’s nose and mouth causing the child to become quiet while flailing her arms and legs for approximately 10 seconds.
When the infant began to cry for the final time, the above placed his right hand over the child’s nose and mouth causing the child to become quiet while flailing her arms and legs for approximately 10 seconds, while yelling “stop crying!” and “you’re gonna learn!”

In a post-Miranda interview, Webb allegedly admitted “to what was observed in the video” and also offered an explanation for why he had repeatedly covered his daughter’s face. From the affidavit:

[Webb] stated that children are “like a dog, you have to train them and set boundaries.” He further admitted that when his children start to cry that “it triggers me, like nails on a chalkboard.” The above admitted to purposefully suffocating his daughter multiple times by covering her mouth and nose “not to cause harm, but to deprive her of oxygen.” The above views this type of punishment towards his children as “action to train the behavior.”

When asked whether he had used the same method on his 2-year-old son, Webb allegedly admitted that he had suffocated the boy approximately four times before the child was 9 months old.

Webb was booked into the Boone County Jail, where he is being held on $500,000 bond, records show. It was not immediately clear when he was scheduled to appear in court.

The post ‘You’re going to learn’: Dad repeatedly suffocated infant to ‘train’ her not to cry, police say first appeared on Law & Crime.