A man convicted on simple assault charges in February was arrested this weekend after poking and sticking his 7-year-old son with a pencil-shaped video game controller.

Police arrested Edward Mahon, 46, on Sunday, March 23, after his stepdaughter Jessica Fitzgerald, 20, called police requesting that Mahon be removed from their home at 75 S. Policy St., unit 52, because he was drunk and disruptive.

When police arrived shortly before midnight that evening, they found Mahon swearing and yelling in front of his 7-year-old son, court documents said. The boy told police that his father had been swearing while sticking him in the chest, neck, foot and ear with a Nintendo stylus controller shaped like a pencil, police said.

“When asked why his father did this to him, he said he didn’t know, but his father kept saying the ‘F word’ during the incident,” police officer Michael Rogers wrote in a court affidavit.

When police saw marks and injuries on the 7-year-old’s chest, they arrested Mahon on a felony second-degree assault charge and a simple assault misdemeanor.

A resisting arrest charge was added when he squared off in a struggle with officers before he was taken into custody, police said.

Mahon previously pleaded guilty on simple assault charges from an incident earlier this year, according to Deputy Chief William Ganley.

“He was arrested in the beginning of February,” Ganley said. “He was charged with simple assault and resisting arrest.”

Following Mahon’s guilty plea, all but 32 days on a six-month sentence were suspended pending good behavior, court documents said.

A resisting arrest charge from his February arrest was placed on file without a finding. Police said they notified the Division of Children, Youth and Families, due to the arrest offense and conditions in the home, but the boy was allowed to remain in his sister’s custody until his mother could return home.

On Monday, March 24, a Salem District Court judge raised Mahon’s bail from $500 to $10,000 cash. He’s currently being held at Rockingham County Jail.