Herald staff
A 40-year-old Everett man was charged Monday with third-degree assault of a child for allegedly beating and humiliating a 10-year-old boy he was supposed to be tutoring.
The boy stayed at the home of Darrell Lloyd Murray for extended periods from November through late January because the boy’s mother, a single parent, was working long hours, deputy prosecutor Chris Dickinson said in court papers.
Murray was the boy’s baseball coach, and he also coaches basketball in the Everett area, Dickinson said.
The tutoring was started because the boy wasn’t doing well in school, but Murray’s method of teaching "turned out to be brutal," Dickinson said.
When the child couldn’t recite his math facts correctly, the defendant would stand him in the corner of the bathroom and punch him in the groin, Dickinson alleged. He also struck the boy on the buttocks with the buckle end of a belt, charging papers alleged.
The boy also told Everett police that Murray enjoyed humiliating him by pulling chairs out from under him and making him eat soap, Dickinson said.
Dickinson said the boy’s mother confronted Murray about injuries, and the defendant allegedly said he spanked the boy with a belt because the child had lied to him.
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