It has been reported that a couple have been arrested after allegedly forcing their three children to live in a plywood box for the past four years, This was revealed by the American police.
According to The Sun UK, the parents identified as Mona Kirk, 51, and Daniel Panico, 73, were held on child cruelty charges on Thursday after officers stumbled across the kid’s vile living conditions in Joshua Tree, California.
The youngsters – aged 14, 13 and 11 – were found in squalid conditions inside the large, rectangular box which measures about 20ft by 10ft and is about 4ft tall.
Officers also discovered around 30 to 40 cats “roaming freely”, along with piles of rubbish and faeces from both humans and felines.
Pictures from the property, about 130 miles east of Los Angeles, show a filthy plot of land with random junk piled high along with countless broken toys.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies were carrying out an area check on Wednesday morning when they spotted what appeared to be an abandoned “travel trailer” made of plywood.
While checking the property, which had no running water or electricity, they found the kids – who told them they had been living there for four year.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement: “The victims were found to have an inadequate amount of food and were living in an unsuitable and unsafe environment due to the conditions located on the property.”
Kirk and Panico were located and determined to be the parents of the three victims, police said.
The pair were arrested and booked in the Morongo Basin Jail with one charge of willful cruelty to a child and held on $100,000 bail.
The children were taken into custody of the Children and Family Services.
Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department, said: “When that wind blows, it is freezing.… These kids are living in a shelter made of wood and tarp and it’s 20 to 30 degrees at night.”
She added: “It’s just tragic that these children were being raised in conditions like this.
“There are services available to help these folks, and clearly they chose not to ask for any help.”
Officers confirmed the children were not being held captive in a confined space, but that the family was homeless.
Capt. Trevis Newport of the Sheriff’s Morongo Basin Station said the children, who weren’t enrolled in a school, were “in good spirits”.
Stay updated with the latest Nigerian news from Information Nigeria
via: INFORMATION NIGERIA
No comments
Post a Comment