By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – A 31-year-old Pleasure Bend area man was arrested on second-degree battery charges Saturday night for allegedly beating up his 8-year-old daughter after a night of drinking, according to a release from the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies were called out to a home in the area around 9:30 p.m. Saturday by the girl’s grandfather, said Capt. Dane Clement, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office. The grandfather told deputies the girl, who lives next door, walked to his home and told him her father had beaten her up, Clement said.

“When deputies arrived, they observed several bruises on the victim’s face,” Clement said. “She told deputies her father punched her several times in the face and kicked her while she was on the ground.”

Clement said the girl’s grandfather transported her to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans for treatment.

According to the Sheriff’s Office release, a female live-in acquaintance of the father told deputies she and the father had been drinking prior to the incident. After speaking with the child, deputies arrested the girl’s father at his residence.

Clement said the suspect, not identified to protect the identity of the victim, was booked into the Sherman Walker Correctional Facility in LaPlace on charges of second-degree battery, domestic abuse battery and cruelty to a juvenile.

He is being held at the jail in lieu of a $60,000 bond.