Davenport man arrested, charged with abusing autistic child

A Davenport man has been arrested after police say he physically abused a child who had been diagnosed as autistic.

According to the criminal complaint, Davenport Police received a report of child abuse happening in the 1400 block of West 12th Street on March 6. The defendant, identified as Scott Terry, 39, was recorded physically abusing a child on three separate occasions. Videos show Terry throwing a shoe at the victim and then kicking them on the side while they were on the couch. Another video shows Terry throwing water in the child’s face and continuously verbally abusing the child. In another video, the defendant was seen picking the child up off the couch and throwing the child across the room.

There are multiple other audio recordings which include Terry saying he will “accidentally” step on the child’s head, says ‘I’m going to give you a reason to cry” and can be seen forcefully hitting the table in front of the victim and saying “next time it will be (the child’s) head.” The victim has been diagnosed autistic.

A warrant for Terry’s arrest was issued on March 14 and he was arrested later that day. He was charged with three felony counts of child endangerment and one felony count of neglect or abandonment of a dependent person.  He is being held in the Scott County Jail on a secured $6,000 bond and has a preliminary hearing on March 25.

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