5-year-old Oklahoma boy beaten ‘to teach him a lesson’ about opening Christmas presents early: police

An Oklahoma man was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and neglect after he allegedly beat his girlfriend's son as a punishment for opening a Christmas present early.

The child's mother left her son with Wesley McCollum Saturday while she went shopping for holiday gifts, Bridgette Payne said in a Facebook post. She came home, she learned her son Ayrian was sent to bed early. When she went to check on him, she discovered the bruises on his arms and face as well as a handprint on his cheek, according to KFOR News.

“Words cannot explain seeing your baby like this and having no clue what happened,” Payne wrote on Facebook. “I ran to him like any mother would do crying, hugging him, beggin what happened. ‘Wesley hurt me bad, mama,’ is all he kept saying.”

She also included many photos of the bruises in the photos. After she "lost it," according to her post, she called the police.

“He tried to say it was ‘to teach him a lesson’ and ‘He needed to learn to listen,'” she wrote.

In an interview with KJRH, Payne said she also filed a protective order against the man. She noted that in the 10 months that the two had been together "not once" had she witnessed any anger, nor did she think he would do something like that to her children.

"I would of never been with him. Plain and simple,” Payne said on Facebook.

Watch a full news report below via KFOR: