Parents jailed, charged in abuse of son

October 31, 2007

Orange County

The mother of a 12-year-old Orange County boy was accused Tuesday of using a hammer to beat her son, and her husband faces charges of failing to report the abuse.

Maria Aguirre, 29, and Fidel Enamorado, 32, were arrested by Orange County deputy sheriffs and booked into the Orange County Jail. Aguirre is accused of aggravated child abuse, and Enamorado faces charges of child neglect and failure to report child abuse.

According to an arrest affidavit, the abuse was first reported last month when numerous scars and injuries could be seen on the boy's body.

Initially, the child denied the abuse and said his injuries were from swimming in a river in his native El Salvador.

He later told an Orange County deputy that Aguirre would force him to remove his clothes and then beat him. She hit him as many as 12 times in a row with extension cords, cans, bottles and once chased him with scissors, according to the report.

"He would then go take a shower to clean the blood off and put his clothes back on," the affidavit stated.

At other times, the child said his mother would chain him to a towel rack in the bathroom or to a bar inside of a shed in the backyard and hit him with a metal pole, according to the document. She recently used a hammer to pound on his feet and used a kitchen knife to hit him in the head, deputies said.

Enamorado knew about the beatings but didn't stop his wife, investigators said. The boy and two sisters have been placed in foster care.



Bianca Prieto, Christopher Sherman and Katie Fretland of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Wire services also were used.