Man Arrested For Beating Child to the Tune of "Blurred Lines"
A Florida man has been arrested is accused of striking an underage victim with a 30-inch metal switch to the tune of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” Steven Grady Fillingim, 40, of Pensacola was booked into the Escambia County Jail on three counts of cruelty towards a child and is currently being held without bond.
According to the arrest report, the unnamed victim (referred to as “a relative”) accuses Fillingim of striking her in the face with a belt and with his hands. She also details other punishments including shoveling dirt for 90 minutes before being allowed to go to bed at 1:30 a.m., being forced to hold heavy weights as punishments for “being lazy,” and then, after skipping school on September 12, being hit on the back of the thighs with a switch for approximately 40 minutes. As he struck her, Fillingam “played the Robin Thicke song “Blurred Lines,” striking her with the switch to the beat of the music.”
At some point during the beating, he began videotaping the event and sent it via text message to his girlfriend Lisa Coleman, titling the video “She’s Home.” Coleman, who “seemed to be very afraid of Fillingim,” has turned over the video to the police and told officers she has broken up with him. The entire report can be read here.
The victim has been left in the care of her mother and the Department of Children and Families is also investigating.
