HORRY COUNTY, SC – Two Little River residents have been arrested and charged with child abuse Friday after their five-week-old baby suffered a spiral fracture June 2. According to a police report from the Horry County Police Department, officers responded to a call for a welfare check on a child after the complainant received a phone call from Seacoast Medical Center about a five-week-old with a fracture to her arm.

CHANDLER — Chuck and Annette Deal say child welfare workers practically cut them out of their granddaughter’s life before she was sent to live with her father and died. Chuck Deal said he was in the delivery room when Serenity Anne Deal was born May 12, 2006. His daughter, Samantha Deal, was a young, single mother, so he and his wife stepped in to help financially, with midnight feedings and everything in between that it takes to raise a child. Serenity died June 4, less than a month after workers with the state Department of Human Services recommended she live full time with her father, Sean Devon Brooks, 31, of Oklahoma City.

Columbia, SC– Investigators in South Carolina charged a mother in her child’s from November 2010. Officers say the infant girl died from a lethal dose of illegally obtained morphine, that was in her mother’s breast milk. Deputies told the Associated Press the mother obtained the drugs illegally. Stephanie Greene, who is the mother, was charged on Friday. Detectives charged the 37 year-old with homicide by child abuse or neglect.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Police say a Charleston woman beat her daughter so badly the girl had to be hospitalized. Witnesses told Charleston Patrolman J.O. Branham they saw Dominique Delores Martinez, 25, of South Park Road beating her daughter Saturday near the entrance to the apartment complex where she lives. Witnesses saw her grab the 10-year-old by the hair and punch her in the face multiple times, according to a complaint filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court.

A 25-year-old Sheboygan woman was charged Thursday with felony child abuse for spanking a 6-year-old boy hard enough to leave multiple bruises, according to a criminal complaint. Katie M. Champeau, of 1702 N. 11th St., could face up to three years in prison, if convicted.

The father of a 3-year-old Victorville girl and the man’s girlfriend were charged with child abuse this week after the toddler was treated for severe hot-water burns over 30 percent of her body. After being treated at local hospitals, the child was flown to a burn center in Northern California where she underwent surgery Monday, San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators said in a written statement. Her condition is described as serious, but stable.

ORONO, Maine — Physicians are often the first to examine babies and children who have been injured deliberately at the hands of their parents or other adults. The locations of bruises or burns, specific types of fractures and elevated levels of certain blood enzymes are among the red flags that should alert physicians to the possibility that a young patient may have been abused. But, according to a national expert speaking Thursday in Orono, some doctors either don’t recognize the signs of abuse and neglect or are reluctant to report their suspicions to law enforcement or child protective authorities.

The grandmother of the Muskogee child who died Monday told police she knew the child had been sexually abused, according to court documents. Betty Hall, 42, told police she saw evidence her son, Robert Jack Meeks II, had sexually assaulted the 4-year-old child about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, the probable cause affidavit states. Hall said she was scared to say anything to Meeks or her husband and she was going to wait and hope the injuries healed, the document states.

MI–East Lansing resident Yumar Burks, who allegedly killed his 6-month-old son, will stand trial on charges of homicide and child abuse July 6 in circuit court. There is enough evidence against Yumar Burks for the case to move forward to circuit court, Judge David Jordon said today in the preliminary examination in East Lansing’s 54-B District Court. The cause of the child’s death was multiple blunt force trauma, said John Bechinski, a forensic pathologist at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital who conducted the autopsy. Antonio Burks died March 25. The manner of death was homicide.

A man is charged with attempted deliberate homicide for the alleged abuse of a 2 year old girl. Court documents say David Wayne Hyslop was watching the child yesterday afternoon, when emergency personnel received a call regarding a 2 year old female who was not breathing at a south side residence. Hyslop initially told police he did not know how the child was injured, but later told them he dropped her when putting her down for a nap.

GUADALUPE, Ariz. – Investigators are trying to determine why two children were duct-taped inside a home that caught on fire Wednesday evening. Firefighters responded to a call at about 5:30 p.m. in reference to children being trapped inside a house where the sofa was reportedly on fire.

Child abuse is more than bruises and broken bones. While physical abuse might be the most visible sign, other types of abuse, such as emotional abuse or child neglect, also leave deep, long lasting scars. Some signs of child abuse are subtler than others. However, by learning common types of abuse and what you can do, you can make a huge difference in a child’s life. The earlier abused children get help, the greater chance they have to heal from their abuse and not perpetuate the cycle. Learn the signs and symptoms of child abuse and help break the cycle, finding out where to get help for the children and their caregivers.

The strong smell of marijuana penetrates the air and drug paraphernalia is evident throughout the room. Pill bottles, snubbed out joints and a makeshift meth lab litter the disgusting apartment, and the small refrigerator in the corner of the room is open and completely empty. And what’s most horrifying is that this drug den is the home to Evan, a young boy whose haunting story is told as part of The Lisa Project – a multi-sensory exhibit started by the Child Abuse Prevention Council of San Joaquin County to show the multi-faceted sides of child abuse and how it exists in our society today.

NIAGARA FALLS–A veteran Niagara EMS paramedic who lives in Niagara Falls is facing child pornography charges after police arrested a man at a home in the Stanley Ave. and North St. area Thursday. Andrew Caston, 46, of Niagara Falls was arrested after Niagara Regional Police officers executed a search warrant at a Desson St. home Thursday. Police said that detectives with the NRP’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit, Child Abuse Unit, and Technological Crimes Unit were accompanied by officers from the Casino Patrol Unit in the arrest. Detectives seized computer systems and other items from the home.