Posted on 05/20/2003 10:10:11 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode
Oddly Enough - Reuters UK
Jail for man who used stun gun on children Fri May 16,10:43 PM ET
ANGLETON, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas man who forced his 8-year-old stepson to walk five miles to school by zapping him repeatedly with a 100,000-volt stun gun has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Theodore Moody, 27, was convicted on two counts of felony abuse on Thursday for using the stun gun on the eight-year-old boy and an 11-year-old stepdaughter.
He was also convicted on one count of child endangerment for allowing his daughter, 2, and son, 3, to wander freely about his trailer park, wearing dirty nappies.
Moody, who lives in Brazoria County south of Houston, caught the attention of police last year after he punished the 8-year-old for missing the school bus by walking behind the boy on the five-mile journey to the school, repeatedly using the stun gun on him.
Police arrested Moody after he demonstrated the device on television news reports while wearing a cap that read "Marriage: the Leading Cause of Divorce". He also displayed a wooden paddle he had split on the boy's buttocks.
In the case of his stepdaughter, Moody was convicted of using it on her after she spilled hot water on the 2-year-old.
Stun guns are sold as a self-defence tool and designed to incapacitate attackers with an electrical charge. Police said Moody's stun gun delivered a shock akin to a bad bee sting.
Jurors asked to try the stun gun out during the trial, and returned their verdicts a few hours later.
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