SHARE this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.
CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC)-- A South Carolina babysitter has been sentenced to three years in prison for child abuse.
The family found out about the abuse from an unusual tipster. When their normally playful pup turned aggressive, the couple became suspicious of their new babysitter.
After moving to Charleston last year, Benjamin and Hope Jordan needed to find someone to watch their seven month old son Finn. It didn't take long for the couple to find someone.
They hired 21-year old Alexis Kahn for the job, who came up clean in a background check; however their confidence in Kahn didn't last too long.
"We felt like Alexis was a good fit at the time…about five months into her being our baby sitter, we started to notice that our dog was very defensive of our son when she would come in the door,” Jordon said. “He was very aggressive towards her and a few times we actually had to physically restrain our dog from going towards her.”
The parents became suspicious so Hope suggested they place an iPhone under the couch and let the phone record what happens while they were at work.
When the couple got home, they listened to the tape and were horrified what they heard (..."shut up, shut up." crying sounds).
“It started with cussing…then you hear slap noises and his crying changes from a distress cry to a pain cry,” the father recounted. “I just wanted to reach through the audio tape, go back in time and just grab him up.”
He said it was hard to believe he had handed his child “to a monster” for five months.
Charleston police arrested Kahn a few weeks later, and she confessed to the crime. She pleaded guilty to assault and battery, and was sentenced one to three years in prison. As part of her plea, Kahn also will be placed on a child abuse registry, which means she is not allowed to work with children.
That fantastic news to the Jordan family.
“To know that maybe Finn's ordeal has possibly saved another child's life in the future,” Jordan said. “Had our dog not alerted us to the trouble, had my wife's instincts not said we need to make something happen, it could have been Finn that was killed by the babysitter.”
”You never know," he added.
Khan will be eligible for parole after serving one year of her sentence.
The Jordans’ say their son is doing fine and has no lingering effects from the abuse.
