Punishment in Washing Machine by Father Kills...

Thrown into the washing machine by his father, 3-year-old Bastien died from his punishment. The cold cycle wash setting killed the child and his short life of child abuse came to an end as punishment for a childish prank. The mother tried to cover up the horrendous murder.

Little Bastien was stripped of his clothes and thrown in the washer when his father decided to punish him for throwing another child's drawing down the toilet. Officials say the little boy had been abused before and it was not the first time he had been put into the washing machine before it was turned on.

When the child's mother went to neighbors for help, she told them Bastien had fallen down the stairs. She said, "I picked him up and his limbs were as loose as those of a rag doll." The couple's 5-year-old daughter told the neighbor it was not the first he had been put into the washing machine for punishment. This sounds like a battered wife covering for an abusive husband.

Child abuse seemed to have been normal in the French household of Christophe Champenois and his wife Charlene. Punishment ranged from being locked away in a cupboard to being let on a window sill tied in a blanket for hours. This time the demented father killed the little unwanted child in their home in Meaux, near Paris.

Bastien had been unwanted since birth according the angelic little boy's grandmother. When she first told the father his wife had given birth to the boy, he responded by saying he did not want him. Christophe Champenois were arrested for murder and his wife has been arrested for failing to prevent a crime and failing to assist a person in danger. French law may sound tame by American standards but hopefully the man and his wife will suffer greatly for their child abuse. Their six other children are now under government protection. A washing machine is a horrible way to die.