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Police: Man Tortures Girl As Punishment For Finding His Porn

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 3, 2009

Updated: 04/03/2009 03:11 pm

Moslim Al Assadi

TAMPA - A Tampa man charged with torturing a 10-year-old female relative because she discovered his pornographic movie collection remains jailed this afternoon. No bail has been set.

Authorities learned of the incident through an anonymous tip and police went to the girl's elementary school to interview her Thursday. The school was not named by authorities.

The girl was reluctant to talk about the incident, which happened last week, because she didn't want to get her relative in trouble, said Tampa police spokesman Jim Contento.

Arrested late Thursday afternoon was Moslim Al Assadi, 36, who lived in the 1900 block of Patterson Street. He remained in the Orient Road Jail today, charged with aggravated child abuse, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Tampa police said the girl told them that Al Assadi got mad because she found his collection of adult movies, which consisted of a few tapes in a paper bag.

"She was being punished for going into his personal stuff," Contento said. Al Assadi then instructed the other children to run the water in the bathtub and get something to tie the 10-year-old's hands.

He tied her hands behind her back and forced her into a partially filled bathtub, where he dunked her head under the water several times, "causing her to struggle for breath," said an arrest affidavit.

The girl's siblings witnessed the incident, police said, and recounted the same story to police Thursday.

"Detectives got involved," Contento said. "The conducted some pretty intense interviews with the victim and the siblings to confirm the story."

The 10-year-old told detectives the punishment wasn't that severe, but the witnesses said she turned blue during the incident, Contento said.

Tampa police detectives along with child protection investigators went to the home Thursday and removed the victim and two other children.

A neighbor said Al Assadi moved into the rental property three years ago and had been homeless prior to that.

Contento said Al Assadi twice had been investigated on child abuse allegations, but each time investigators cleared him of any wrongdoing, saying the corporal punishment was not excessive and fell within the parameters of acceptable discipline.

But the bathtub incident, Contento said, went too far.

"This type of punishment certainly doesn't comply with any community standards, he said.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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