FL - Lakeland couple abused children, locked them in closet

OkieGranny

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http://www.wfla.com/story/26294096/lakeland-couple-accused-of-caging-kids

A Lakeland couple is in the Polk County jail, charged with child abuse toward an 11- and 12-year-old. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd called the couple's residence the “house of horror” Friday when detailing the kind of torture the couple made the children endure...

Sean Pearson, 33, and Jessica Rowland, 21, face multiple counts of child abuse charges and are being held on a bond of $400,000 combined. Pearson, who was charged in 2005 with sexual battery on a victim under 12, did not hold back when telling detectives what he and his girlfriend made the children go through.

He claimed he could “write a book” on the discipline, the sheriff said. In fact, the arrests stemmed from responding to a call at the house that Pearson dialed in, because the children were being unruly. Once detectives went inside and interviewed the suspects and the victims, they realized the magnitude of what was happening there.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/new...icles/bn9/2014/8/15/deputies_lakeland_co.html

Detectives said the couple agreed to be interviewed, and that both suspects said the following:

The suspects covered the girl's mouth with their hands when she screamed because it "hurt their eardrums."

The suspects gave the girl Pearson's prescription Depakote several times to "calm her down" because she "gets out of control. They said they did this knowing it was illegal, and they would watch her in case she passed out or stopped breathing. Detectives said the suspects told them that if she refused to take the pills, they forced them down her throat.

Pearson said he learned about forms of child discipline from reading books and "the military"...

The list goes on and on. :furious:

It's not clear what the couple's relationship is with these children, but it doesn't sound like the kids belong to either one of them. They aren't charged with kidnapping, so maybe some kind of informal foster care arrangement?
 
Did the neighbor call authorities when the adult female was hosing down the naked boy with a pressure washer? Ugh! I cut my bare foot with a pressure washer...enough to leave a long scar.
These poor children.

I neglected to read the sit article posted.
 
I wonder what the relationship with the children was? They can't have been the 21yr old woman's?
I'm glad the neighbour called the police, although it sounds like the abuse had been going on sometime, before it was finally reported.

I hope the children are in a safe loving home, where they have the chance of a real childhood. God bless them.
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...2-prescription-drugs-police-article-1.1906012

Pearson forced the kids to sit on a can of vegetables until their buttocks went numb, he claimed in an interview with Polk County detectives. He also tied the girl’s wrists together and hung her on a beam to dangle.

The couple also forced the girl to take Pearson’s prescription of Depakote, a drug that treats seizures, migraines and bipolar disorder, when she was “out of control.”
 
I hope these children are now in loving homes. As for these two... well...
 

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