South Carolina parents jailed after child beaten until ‘permanently disfigured’

DARLINGTON, SC (WBTW) – Two Darlington parents are behind bars after deputies say one suspect beat a child so severely that it left the child permanently disfigured.

According to Lt. Robert Kilgo with the Darlington County Sheriff’s Office, deputies arrested James Charlie Harkins, 41, and Ida Gregg, 22, both of Darlington and charged them with multiple counts of child neglect.

Hawkins is charged with five counts of unlawful neglect of a child and one count of inflicting great bodily injury on a child. Gregg is charged with five counts of unlawful neglect of a child and one count of allowing a person to inflict great bodily injury on a child.

Investigators say between April and July of this year, Hawkins repeatedly beat a child with electrical cords and other objects “leaving the child permanently disfigured.”

The couple also put other children in the home at “unreasonable risk,” but Lt. Kilgo did not go into detail regarding those dangers.

Hawkins is jailed on a $108,000 bond and Gregg is held on a $90,000 bond.

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