Mother speaks out after one caretaker who allegedly abused her disabled son is behind bars

 By Merit Morgan

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - A caretaker that was accused by a mother of abusing her disabled son is now behind bars.

According to the warrant, 67-year-old Gayle Waugh abused Naomi Howard’s son, Matthew Howard back in May at his home in Greenville.

The video Howard shared with WITN shows Waugh allegedly pressing a clipboard against Matthew’s face and later using a cane to poke and tap Matthew in the face.

“Shocked, disbelief. When this happened, I was just floored. It didn’t affect just me. It affected my whole family and the community that something like this would happen to an individual with a disability,” Naomi told WITN.

Now that an arrest has been made and a charge has been filed, Greenville Police Department Special Victims Unit Detective, Robert Signs, says, “How mean-spirited of a human being or human beings can be. This is a defenseless man. He was unable to speak for himself and was bedridden. No excuse for what was done in that video.”

However, this wasn’t the first time Waugh was accused of abusing a child. Latequa Brown, another Pitt County parent, also accused Waugh of abusing their disabled daughter 4-year-old Annalise Brown. So far, there have been no charges filed in that case.

“It’s not even about trust. It’s about when you have a professional like a nurse or doctor, you’re interacting with, it’s about keeping that oath to do no harm,” Howard says.

Though Howard says their lives will never be the same, moving forward, she only wants to shed light on the pain to save other families from heartache and to get justice for her son.

“It’s like when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall, he cracked, you couldn’t put him back together again and I know that putting my son back together again is not going to happen,” Howard said. “If your gut tells you that something isn’t right, follow your gut and parents do like I do, put cameras in your home because our kids cannot speak for themselves. Anything I can do to just continue to show him love with my family, friends, all the support we’ve gotten off of social media-- it has been overwhelming.”

Detective Signs also says the case was brought to their attention by the care facility Waugh worked at who later notified Howard. Signs says with the video evidence, it is clear that the officer on duty did the right thing by taking out a felony charge on Waugh.

Waugh was jailed on a $10,000 bond and has a court date of October 25th.

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Mother speaks out after one caretaker who allegedly abused her disabled son is behind bars