Dad's Hidden Camera Catches Babysitter Beating Boy

A Joliet father curious as to why his 2-year-old son was so well behaved around the babysitter set up a secret camera to record their interaction and later watched in horror as the woman beat the boy into submission, police said

"It was the most amazing thing I ever saw in my life. It was horrible," the father, Paul Carlos, recalled to the Joliet Herald before he was overcome with emotion.

He told police that the camera was disguised as a clock radio and activated when it sensed motion.  When he reviewed the recording, he said he saw the babysitter, 52-year-old Erin Denny, beating the boy because she couldn't find the remote control for the TV.

"I never would have guessed," he said. "She seemed like such a nice lady."

Denny, a family friend who lives with Carlos' mother, is jailed on a felony charge of aggravated battery to a child and a parole violation.

Carlos, a Teamster truck driver, said Denny was a family friend and lived with his mother in her East Washington Street home. He would drop his young son off with Denny at his mother’s residence on his way to work.

"It struck me as odd that he listened to (Denny) and nobody else,” he repeated. “Now I see it was out of fear."