Soldier Waterboards Daughter, 4, Over ABCs

He admits abuse, faces assault charges
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 8, 2010 10:25 AM CST
Soldier Waterboards Daughter, 4, Over ABCs
Washington police report that Tabor apparently didn't see anything wrong with waterboarding his daughter as punishment.   (Shutterstock)

A Washington state soldier has been charged with assault after admitting to police that he waterboarded his 4-year-old daughter for not properly reciting the alphabet. Cops found Joshua Tabor drunkenly wandering his Tacoma neighborhood in his combat helmet yelling about breaking windows. When they visited his home, his scratched and bruised daughter was hiding in a closet. “Daddy did it,” she told police.

Tabor confessed that his daughter “squirmed” when he placed her on a kitchen counter and submerged her head 3 or 4 times in a bowl of water, the News Tribune reports. He admits using the technique because she is terrified of the wet stuff. He is confined to base pending trial. It’s unclear if Tabor was deployed overseas, but troops from his base have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan. He received custody of his daughter just 4 weeks ago. (More Joshua Tabor stories.)

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