New Castle County Mother Charged With Felony Assault, Child Endangerment
NEW CASTLE, Del. (CBS) - New Castle County Police have arrested and charged a woman with several counts of child endangerment after she allegedly beat her children with an extension cord.
Forty-two-year-old Serena Wardlaw of the Overview Gardens community in New Castle allegedly beat her 9-year-old son after he removed a check from her checkbook so that he could buy a book from his school's book fair, according to police.
At about 10:30 a.m. on Friday, County Police responded to the child's school for a report of a possible case of abuse. They learned that a caseworker from the Division of Family Services received a call from the school nurse about a child having an injury to his arm from his mother striking him with an extension cord.
Police say the mother became upset when she discovered that her son had removed the check and struck him several times. Police also discovered that the victim's 7-year-old twin sisters had prior injury marks on their body that were consistent with being struck with the same object.
Wardlaw was charged with four counts of second degree assault and five counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
She was arraigned and released on $21,000 unsecured bail and ordered to have no unsupervised contact with the children.
