Published: November 08, 2006 11:39 pm      

Somerset father charged in gruesome abuse of infant

SOMERSET — A 21-year-old Somerset father is in jail after police charged him with repeatedly abusing his infant, including jolting the baby with a stun gun.

Brandon Alan Austill of Somerset was charged Wednesday by borough police and arraigned before District Judge Arthur Cook on charges he broke several of the infant’s bones, fractured his skull twice and shocked him twice with a cattle-prod stun gun.

The abuse, police said, happened between Sept. 11 – four days after the baby was born – and Oct. 31, when the baby was flown from Somerset Hospital to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Officer Richard Appel said the man indicated that he was unable to comfort the baby or get him to stop crying. Austill and the baby’s mother, Briana Dawn Clark, accompanied the infant to the Pittsburgh hospital.

Medical staff and medical records indicated that the broken bones and fractures were at various stages of healing and had occurred during separate incidents, according to a police release.

Austill admitted to forcefully smashing his child’s head onto a bathroom sink and a dining-room table, bending the child’s leg over his shoulder until he heard it break and using a stun gun, police said.

Austill, who is in the Somerset County Jail in lieu of $75,000 straight bail, faces charges including six counts of aggravated assault and eight counts of reckless endangerment.

His address is listed as in apartments at 800 East Main St.