A Texas man, aged 52, is facing serious allegations of child abuse involving his young grandchildren. He is accused of subjecting them to harsh physical discipline, including whipping, slamming their hands against a table, and tackling them.

Cody Wayne Ainsworth was arrested last week and charged with three counts of causing injury to a child, reflecting the gravity of the accusations.

The investigation into Ainsworth’s actions was initiated when the Bruceville-Eddy Police Department received a 911 call on November 19, reporting potential child abuse at a home on the 600 block of First Street in Waco, according to CBS affiliate KWTX. This location is situated approximately 100 miles south of Dallas.

Upon arriving at the scene, officers spoke with a woman identified as Ainsworth’s stepdaughter, who is also the mother of his three grandchildren. She informed the police that she had just had a confrontation with Ainsworth over his treatment of her children.

According to the mother, a particularly alarming incident involved her 7-year-old son during bath time. The boy had used some of Ainsworth’s body wash to create more bubbles in the tub, which reportedly enraged Ainsworth. He allegedly forced the child to place his hand on the kitchen table and then repeatedly slammed the child’s hand using his own, as detailed in a probable cause affidavit.

The mother indicated that this form of punishment was a common practice for Ainsworth, raising further concerns about the children’s safety and well-being.

The affidavit also included allegations from the mother claiming that Ainsworth regularly used profanity and other “adult language” when addressing the children, particularly threatening them with physical violence, Waco Fox affiliate KWKT reported.

Ainsworth’s wife, the children’s grandmother, then provided investigators with a series of recordings in which Ainsworth allegedly threatened the boys. In one of the recordings, the grandmother can be heard scolding her husband for his treatment of the grandkids.

“I’m tired of you treating them like they are f—ing dogs,” she said in the recording, per KWTX. “You talk to them like they are grown a— people, instead of like children. Do you know that is child abuse?”

The recordings also included Ainsworth saying the following:

• “If you look off one more time, you’re getting whooped.”
• “Touch that remote one more time, and you ain’t got to worry about TV no more.”
• “Let me catch you go through that door with one more piece of [expletive] food, you won’t be able to [expletive] eat no more, because I will make sure you can’t eat.”
• “I’ll [expletive] kick your a—.”
• “I don’t give a [expletive] if you gotta p—. You will wait until you get up in the morning. You can p— all over yourself. I don’t give a [expletive].”

As the investigation continued, a school nurse told police that she spoke to one of the little boys, who claimed that he hurt his back when “Grandpa Cody” tackled him.

Additionally, a teacher for one of the kids had kept track of his “multiple physical discomforts,” documenting the injuries “weekly,” which included injuries to his “stomach, feet, cheek, chin, and elbows,” among other things.

During forensic interviews with the victims, the 4-year-old boy reportedly told authorities he was scared of Ainsworth, who he said had “used a belt to give him a whooping on his stomach.”

Ainsworth was being held in the McLennan County Jail on $150,000 bond. Records show he bonded out at some point after his arrest. It was not immediately clear when he was scheduled to appear in court.