Buster

Mother Arrested For Dousing Her Sleeping Infant Daughter With Water

A South Carolina woman was arrested yesterday for pouring water over the face of her sleeping infant daughter, an act of child cruelty that she recorded and uploaded to her Facebook page.

Caitlin Alyse Hardy, 33, was collared Wednesday after the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office opened a probe into “disturbing images on a social media site.”

Investigators allege that Hardy twice poured water on her sleeping nine-month-old girl. After the second dousing, the infant “woke up coughing,” cops noted. The video uploaded to Hardy’s Facebook page included the caption “Payback for waking me up all kinda times of da night.” It was accompanied by emojis of a baby and a smiling face with tears of joy.

On the video, Hardy--Aquafina bottle in hand--can be heard laughing as she pours water on her child, who was sleeping in a crib. A still from the video can be seen below.

Hardy, pictured above, was charged with cruelty to children in connection with the January 26 incident at her residence. Cops have notified the county’s social services department “in order that thorough investigations be conducted into this matter for the benefit and safety of all children in this home.”

Hardy’s name does not appear on the roster of inmates currently being held in the county jail.