GOLD HILL — A Gold Hill man faces child abuse charges Thursday after he allegedly left his baby unattended in the home.

The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office charged Nathaniel Aaron Medley, 34, of the 100 block of Doby Road, with misdemeanor child abuse.

Officials said Medley called 911 to report that the child had been taken. However, around the same time, a man approached two Rockwell police officers to tell them he found his granddaughter unattended at his daughter’s home, Sheriff’s Capt. John Sifford said.

The man said one grandchild had just gotten off the school bus. The man said he was taking the boy home. When the man arrived, he found Medley passed out on the bed and his 1-year-old granddaughter awake beside him in a soiled diaper. The grandfather said the bed was “high off the ground” and he feared the baby was in danger of falling.

The man told deputies he gave the child a bottle and “she drank it as if she had not been fed all day,” Sifford said.

The grandfather said Medley stumbled out of the bedroom, yelled at another man passed out on the couch and that’s when he left the house with the children.

When deputies arrived at the Doby Lane home, they discovered three men on the porch, one of whom was identified as Medley, Sifford said. He allegedly stumbled from the porch and, while giving an account of what occurred, the deputy said he could smell the alcohol on Medley from 10 feet away.

A report states Medley fell asleep while at the Rowan County Magistrate’s Office and when asked what day it was.

Sifford said the Rowan Department of Social Services was called and indicated. The department already had an active case on the Doby Lane home and had put a “safety plan” in place, Sifford said. Medley was issued a $1,000 secured bond and has since been released from the Rowan County Detention Center.