Father Indicted For Beating Daughters Over ‘Twerking’ Video

Dayton, OH – A father who beat his two daughters with a cord has been charged with child endangerment and corporal punishment.

Greg Horn, 35, whipped his daughters, ages 12 and 14, with a video cable after walking in on the girls recording themselves “twerking.” Twerking involves wobbling or jiggling the hips and buttocks. Or, to borrow Miley Cyrus’s definition, “It’s a lot of booty action.”

The video was first posted on WorldStarHipHop.com before making its way to YouTube. Several reaction videos popped up shortly afterward.

According to the police report, one of the girls had visible welts on her legs and open wounds in the thigh area from being beaten with the video cable. The girls’ mother noticed the wounds and called police.

The 30 second video sparked a debate over whether Horn’s actions were abusive or good parenting. Some felt that he went too far — at one point, one of the girls screams, “Daddy, stop,” but he continues to beat her — while others felt he was teaching his daughters a lesson and preventing them from engaging in more inappropriate behavior. Ultimately, even though the video had gone viral and left many wondering why the police hadn’t been notified, it was the mother’s intervention that led to an arrest.

Horn’s indictment comes during the first week of Child Abuse Awareness Month.

Although it was initially reported that the girls were beaten for recording themselves twerking, they told police they were beaten for sneaking out of the house. The reason the incident is caught on video is because the girls were still recording the video when the father walked in. It doesn’t appear that he was aware that the camera was recording.

Greg Horn is scheduled to appear in court on April 16 for his arraignment hearing.

Do you think Greg Horn was justified in beating his daughters with a video cable, whether for twerking or for sneaking out of the house?

UPDATE: April 6, 2013

The Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office has said that the man shown in the video is not the same man prosecutors indicted on child endangerment charges.

“After having the prosecutor look at the video, that is not our guy,” said office spokesman Greg Flannagan, according to the Springfield News Sun. A news agency in Los Angeles called the prosecutor’s office after some articles encouraged it. Flannagan added, “It kind of made our life miserable today.”

Horn is 5-foot-9 and 230 pounds. Flannagan said the man in the video appears to be leaner, and perhaps taller, than Horn.