Woman created fake videos to cover up 5-year-old stepdaughter’s injuries

A Connecticut woman was jailed after seriously injuring her 5-year-old stepdaughter, then covering it up with staged videos to make it look like the girl caused her own injuries.

The stepdaughter of 24-year-old Felicia Marie O'Brien, of East Hampton, had been hospitalized with injuries ranging from swollen eyes, bruises and wounds on her face, the Washington Post reported.

In three different emergency room visits, both O'Brien and her stepdaugher claimed the girl had caused the injuries to herself, the report said. There were videos to show it.

But police said O'Brien staged them.

A video showed the 5-year-old hitting her head on a bunk bed ladder because "voices in her head told her to do it," police said. At the time, experts could not agree on an assessment, according to the warrant, so police could not intervene. The next month, she returned to a hospital with wounds on her face.

The girl had a “very large and swollen bruise causing her eyes to swell shut,” which the warrant said would have been caused by hair-pulling or severe force. She also had a “finger-shaped bruising consistent with grabbing and squeezing” on her body.

She was transported to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford.

A doctor at the hospital watched the videos on O’Brien’s cellphone and told police that the footage looked fake, according to the warrant cited by the Hartford Courant. Tapping her own head to a bunk bed ladder, the doctor told police, would not have caused such severe bruising on her face.

Just weeks later, the girl returned to a hospital with more wounds on her face.

The Post reported that while watching the videos on O’Brien’s cellphone, police found outtakes of the staged incidents. In one clip, O’Brien told the girl to begin and the 5-year-old started swinging her head between the bars, pretending to injure herself. In another clip, O’Brien seemed to forget her line, calling out, “What are you…” and then pausing before she finished: “doing?” At the same time, the girl was tapping her head on the bars.

Police found a hole in the bathroom wall that matched the girl’s height and head size, the report said, where they believe she actually sustained the injuries.

O'Brien has been charged with intentional cruelty to persons and risk of injury to a minor.