Man Evades Life Sentence Despite Hand In Prolonged Abuse Of Boy Tied To Bed, Tortured Senseless

A Virginia man may serve only up to seven years in prison despite his alleged involvement in the abuse of a seven-year-old child in 2019.

Edward Prince Childs, a 41-year-old resident of Woodford, Virginia, has recently been convicted of child abuse by the Caroline Circuit Court for his role in the harmful abuse of a seven-year-old child, according to the Free Lance-Star.

The child’s mother, Ashley Ann Karam, had previously pleaded guilty to the charges of aggravated malicious wounding and abduction. She has also been convicted of child abuse in 2012 for abusing one of her children who now remains in foster care.

There is a possibility that she may be slapped with a life sentence for her heinous actions against her children.

The case was opened on May 19, 2019, when the child in question, a seven-year-old boy, was found by neighbors to be injured and begging for help in their yard. He related to them his narrow escape from his mother's abusive home, where evidence showed he was tied to a bed and repeatedly beaten before being left soaked in his own blood and urine. The minor was reportedly also tortured using extension cords and whips.

The police stated that when they answered the child’s distress call, they found him “with obvious injuries and alone,” according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

His injuries included a black eye, a busted lip, and missing teeth, as well as bruises and cuts all over his body. Court records have stated that he required a blood transfusion after being treated and examined due to his “extremely low” hemoglobin levels at the time.

The young victim was hospitalized at the time in a critical condition, according to NBC affiliate WWBT. The boy in question is now in foster care.

Childs and Karam were promptly arrested by the police in 2019 for what prosecutors at the time called the “most evil and horrific child abuse case I’ve ever seen or heard.”

Childs has insisted that he never harmed the boy and Karam has denied any involvement from Childs in her abuse, but the boy said that Childs abused him as well.

Childs and Karam will be sentenced by the court on Sept. 29.