Soldier 'waterboards' four-year-old daughter for not reciting her abc's
Categories: Latest news
Joshua Tabor, 27, has been charged with assault after admitting holding his daughter's head underwater three or four times, because he became angry when she failed to recite the alphabet.
Tabor was reported to the police by his girlfriend who said he was "irate, intoxicated and walking around the neighbourhood with his Kevlar helmet threatening to break windows."
His daughter was eventually found hiding in a cupboard, with bruising and scratches to her back and neck. When asked how she got the injuries, she replied 'Daddy did it'.
Waterboarding, as it is known, was a torture technique used by the CIA to interrogate suspects at Guantanamo Bay, but it has since been outlawed by Barack Obama.
The victim is forcibly submerged in water until they fear they will drown. Tabor is reported to have chosen the punishment specifically because his daughter is terrified of water.
The little girl's natural mother lives in Kansas. Tabor had been granted custody only four weeks ago, and his daughter has now been taken into care.
This latest news follows the shocking story of the mother who forced her son to kill his pet hamster as a punishment for not doing his homework, which was reported on this site recently.
Tabor, a soldier at the Lewis-McChord base in Tacoma, Washington, has a history of anger management issues. Whilst his military record has not been revealed, the base has units which have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With Tabor's history of aggressive behaviour could this case have been prevented, or are such acts of cruelty so rare and unusual that they cannot be foreseen?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Janet Flynn 2-09-2010 @ 12:29PM
How could a soldier with anger management issues be allowed to have custody of a 4-year-old? Unbelievable! I take it the mother wasn't a fit person to look after her own child either? Tabor should be waterboarded himself to see how long he'd last. From what I've heard, it's one of the most efficient methods of torture that there is.
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Finolla 2-09-2010 @ 4:44PM
I agree with Janet Flynn, but these men who do such things are cowards themselves - he should be horsewhipped and then salt rubbed into the wounds - we are becoming too soft with these people, Afteall the child does not stand a chance with people like him.
Geoff 2-09-2010 @ 12:36PM
He should be castrated and then shot. There is no excuse for cruelty to children.
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walrus 2-09-2010 @ 1:01PM
You take a man (or woman) and train them to kill and maim and generally fight for their country. You do not train them for normal life properly but just let them go after all they have seen and done.
They go out into society and do what you have trained them to do and you are surprised!!
Don't llok to the soldier when he misbehaves but better to look tothose who asked and trained him to do what he did....................now just who could that be??
the self same people who are shocked because he did it so well?
Yes a child should not be treated so but just who's fault is it?
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Suzanne 2-09-2010 @ 1:33PM
My uncle was a butcher for forty two years, which in his early working days, meant slaughtering animals. He certainly didnt come home and carve up his wife and kids. There are lots of soldiers who go to war and do not come home and torture their children. No excuse. He needs to be dealt with as a person who has been cruel to his daughter who was already terrified of water..
h-palmer 2-09-2010 @ 2:43PM
Oh what absolute b****x. There are thousands and thousands of highly trained military personel who do not and would not EVER EVER EVER do anything to harm another human being ( let alone their own tiny child) outside the field of conflict. This man is a tosser, nothing more nothing less. There is NOTHING to excuse his behaviour.
One has to wonder at the US Childwelfare Courts who gave custody to a man with anger management issues. Didn't that set off alarm bells? The mother obviously wasn't considered capable of taking care of the child either........jeeeez what a pair of losers. The little girl should have been taken into care originally. Thank goodness she is there now.
anne 2-09-2010 @ 5:06PM
What an idiot. Nobody trained him to be a coward and the majority of us neither asked nor wanted him to take part in an illegal war where, presumably, he was willing and able to kill civilians - children included. "Boo Hoo it wasn't my fault " doesn't cut it when your four year old daughter is hiding in a cupboard.
Diane 2-14-2010 @ 12:51PM
That is nonsense, the vast majority of military parents are great parents, this freak would have done the same to his child whether he'd been in the military or not, he is just a sadist.
Janet Flynn 2-09-2010 @ 1:32PM
The people who allowed him to have the child in his care. They should be held partly responsible for what he did but then again, they didn't make him do what he did. He chose to do it.
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juice 2-09-2010 @ 1:45PM
he sounds like the nutter freak who had the twelve year old girl Alexa locked up for desk writing. What sort of kicks do these peopel get in the case of this little girl and Alexa. One kid is tortured Guantanamo style and the other probably given the means to have phobias for the rest of her life, esp of men or anyone to do with authority. I hope both kids are actually protected from their abusers now.
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Jerkyflexoff 2-10-2010 @ 2:22AM
Oh your so heartless, Bla Bla Bla. by the way its a girl.!
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Fred 2-09-2010 @ 4:09PM
Bully! Bully! Bully! I bet his anger outburst were never at someone who was his equal physically. They never are. Some psycho massacres unarmed men women and children and we are told they were loners who had no pals,....... shame!....... or they have anger management problems, NO they are bullying nutters exactly like the terrorists who never target the military or the highly defended politicians, no, they attack the weak and unarmed civilian population, who cannot do a thing to defend themselves. They are a cancer in society so they should be removed..permanently! But it'll never happen. Forever more beaureaucrats will wring there hands and plead "where did we go wrong?" and that other pearl "what lessons can be learned from this?" The lessons are either accept that bullying bastards like this will continually offend or we have to remove them like a tumour on the body of society!
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Finolla 2-09-2010 @ 4:47PM
What a load of crap - men who fought in the first and second world war did not come back and torture innocent children just because they could not recite the alphabet, and they were trained to kill. No this man has a cruel streak and a coward picking on a 4 year old he only has himself to blame not the army who were supposed to have trained him.
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shaza 2-10-2010 @ 5:12AM
thank god the child didnt have severe learning difficulties then - christ only knows wot hed have done to her for not being cooperative or soiling herself etc etc. idiots like that should be dismissed and charged with child cruelty and abuse and be sectioned until he gets proper treatment for his disgusting behaviour and sees the error of his ways. we dont know the circumstances that led to her being placed with him- the childs mother maybe ill or various reasons- maybe she had a nervous breakdown cos she probably got the previous god knows how many yrs of abuse from him herself?? hope the child is ok god bless her xx
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sweetie belle 2-18-2010 @ 12:09PM
Walrus what planet are you on?! As most people above have explained, the majority of parents who are in the military are perfectly normal, caring parents! The so-called father in this story is sick, twisted and not fit to even take care of a pet, let alone an innocent 4 year old. Thank goodness she is now in care and will hopefully be placed with a loving family. Can you imagine how frightened she must of been, to not only have that done to her, but by her own dad? Poor poor child. And for something as trivial as not reciting the flamin alphabet! Hope when he's in prison someone does something as vile to him, so he knows how his daughter must of felt. Im quite convinced his career choice had no influence on this incident, as to do something so abusive to your own child comes from a very un-hinged mind. He would of done this had he been a shop worker, cleaner, whatever. He's just plain sick to have that mentality.
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