DEARBORN, Mich. – A mother is speaking out after police informed her that they suspect her son had endured sexual abuse and torture.
Haitham Sami Bazzi, of Dearborn, is being held in federal custody and charged with possession of child pornography. The mother of a child in one of the pornographic videos Bazzi is accused of having was contacted by police on April 4.
Read: Dearborn man facing child porn charges after showing videos to man he met with for sex, police say
“My husband gets a phone call out of the blue. We were at work. And the Dearborn police, you know, called and asked my husband, ‘hey, can you bring (our son) down to the police station,’” the child’s mother said.
When they arrived, police showed the child’s parents a photo of 26-year-old Bazzi.
“‘We believe he’s (their son) been a victim of basically sexual abuse and torture,’” the child’s mother said police told them.
The child showed them burn marks from cigarettes and told police that Bazzi gave him meth.
“It made sense to me because my son’s behavior, his skin changed, he started being angry,” the child’s mother said.
Bazzi sought the child out on a dating app and asked the then-15-year-old boy if he was interested in photography.
Bazzi’s basement was divided into four rooms. There were chains and hidden cameras. Police told the family that there were videos of her son being abused.
The mother said she had to go get her son out of Bazzi’s home and said a family member in that house told them not to go to the police.
“Me and my husband decided to talk to the police, she was kind of like, ‘no we’re sending him off to California so that he can get the help he needs,’” the child’s mother said.
Dearborn police served a search warrant on the home and took Bazzi into custody. He is now in federal custody and the FBI is investigating.
Police said they found other videos with children as young as 1 year old being abused in that basement on video.