Serious allegations of child cruelty reported against mother and step-father of two minors!
“Hattieville couple, Mirna Canelo and Ponciano Coc are out on bail of $4,000 each- Mother and step-father charged with child cruelty on 2 of their children”
by Anita Nembhard/Flowers
BELIZE CITY, Mon, Dec. 7, 2020
Police and Human Services Department became involve in a very serious case of allege child cruelty after a video went viral on Facebook.
Today two parents of Hattieville Village were arraign on charges of child cruelty and harm.
They have been identify as 29-year-old mother, Mirna Canelo, a house wife along with her common-law husband, 53-year-old Ponciano Coc, a Construction Worker of Ysaguirre Boulevard, Hattieville Village.
The couple appeared before Chief Magistrate, Sharon Fraser in Court #1 where they were read a number of charges.
The couple were charged jointly with one count of child cruelty upon a 12-year-old child.
Allegations are that sometime between November 1, 2020 and November 22, 2020, in Hattieville Village, being over 18, and having care of the minor, (whose name we cannot say), they willfully ill treated him in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering.
Coc alone was read a charge of child cruelty upon another one of his step-children, a child who is under the age of 12, a is a minor.
Allegations are that on November 15, 2020, in Hattieville Village, being over 18, and having care of the minor, (whose name we cannot say), he willfully ill treated him in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering.
Count three and four, Coc was read two counts of harm upon the two minor boys 12 and the other under the age of 12.
While on count five the couple were jointly charged with another count of harm upon the 12 year old minor, who happens to be Canelo’s son but Coc’s step-son.
In court, no plea was taken from the couple since the matter is being dealt with on indictment until further directives from the DPP’s office.
Court prosecutor in the matter, Corporal Christopher Smith had no objection to bail, but from the facts before the court, Chief Magistrate, Fraser was disturb with all the allegations the boys made against there mother and step-father and the ugly acts of cruelty which is allege to have occur against them that the Chief with a heavy heart was not so willingly to grant bail to the two accused parents.
But their attorney, Andrew Bennett was able to convince her that the reports are allegations which are not yet proven in court and that there are reports made by the parents to the police regarding the unruly behavior of the 12-year-old who has been giving troubles in the past and that the mother had made appeal to the police to get help with discipling the child in the past. He also added that the child fabricated the story against his mother and step-father, twisting a series of event over a period of time.
But despite what Attorney Bennett had to say, Chief Magistrate, Fraser said she had to take into consideration the serious allegations being made by the minors and make sure she keeps them safe for now until the case is concluded and the facts are heard in court to determine who is being truthful.
For now she had to take the safety of the children first into consideration. With that she offered bail the mother and step-father in the sum of $4,000 plus one surety and order that they are to both stay away from the children until the case is concluded.
The children, four children three being for Canelo and a fourth which is her step-son, and the son of Coc are in the hands of the state, Human Services Department since the allegations were made against the parents.
In a report to the police, the 12-year-old child, (who is Canelo’s son) was taken to the Hattieville Police Station by a Social Worker, where the boy reported to police that he lives with his mother and step-father and three other siblings but that hs step-father has been living with his mother for almost four years now, and ever since he has been treating them badly.
According to the 12-year-odl boy, every complain his mother give to their step-father, he would beat them with his hands and that they abuse them by drinking and smoking at the home.
The 12-year-old boy said that on November 8, 2020, he and his brother, who is under the age of 12, ended up living at a Child Care Center located in Northern Belize because his mother had burn his eyes with a spatula.
They were placed in different care with relatives but that he was later send back home to live with his mother and his brother along with their step-father.
While at home, his step-father one day lash him with a rope after the boy claim his mother had send him to do an errand of selling two Choco Babanas which cost $1.50 and when he got home, he gave him mother $1.00 and took $.50 cents .
Upon arrival home, the boy said he smelled the high aroma of alcohol and that day when his step-father came home, and spoke with his mother, , his step-father came out of the room upset and angry and order his mother light the stove and put the komal on it and that’s when he placed his hands three times on the komal, burning it.
The 12-year-old said when he beagn to cry, that is when his step-father told him to shut up and order his little brother to go and get the red orange rope and that’s when both his hands and feet were tied up and in the presence of his mother, he was palced on a board in the celing and held there like a pig would be roast.
According to the 12-year-old boy, his mother then told him, “Dis ketch yuh because ah thief, and uno nuh do things right.
The boy said his mother then grabbed a ruler and began to hit him, and he sustain a burst lip. Then his step-father join in an begin to beat him up too until he was in great pain.
The boy said he was left to hang there on the rope for a while his mother and step-father sat in the room eating water-melon. After a while, his ste-father came out of the room and lose him from the rope where he fell to the ground and where they left him there until he asked for food and was allow to eat but could barely eat his food because of the pain he was in at the time.
The boy told police that after that incident, he was in pain for two weeks
But on November 15, 2020, a Sunday, his step-father arrived home and asked them why they were not listening to their mother and that is when his step-father told him to get the orange rope off the shelf and he made two knots on it and placed it around he and his brothers neck and then he placed them both over the board in the room and he pulled the rope leaving both of them to hang off the ground.
The 12-year-old boy said, he could not even scream and he was in pain and while it was just for a short while, his mother just sat in a chair and watched and laughed at them.
After they were released from the rope, his step-father tied up their hands and later released the rope from their hands and made them drink water and finish their chores.
A 12-year-old boy further told police that a week later, on Sunday, November 22, 2020, he was told by his mother to go pick up a quilt and when he came home with the quilt it had gotten dirty by the dog and even though his little brother told them how the quilt got direct, he was blamed for it and as punishment, his mother pushed him into the front door and told him to leave the house because he could not stay there anymore.
The 12-year-old boy said he got his face mask and left the house and that so when his step-father send his little brother to go get him and then upon his return made his little brother get the orange rope and when the 12-year-old boy saw that he was going to be beaten, he ran to the Hattieville Police Station and told the police what had happen.
The child said that at the station, when his mother was question by the police, his mother told them that all his injuries was self-inflicted.
A Social worker later was called in to check-out the matter and that was when the parents were arrested and charged by Hattieville Police.