| This PI$SES ME OFF!!!
Boys kept in cages by 'domineering' parents
A Canadian couple kept their adopted sons confined to cages, forced them to wear nappies and beat them over a 13 year period.
Police found one of the boys, aged 15, curled up in a padlocked cage made from a cot strapped to the wall of their farmhouse, in the Durham region of Toronto.
Officers say the couple's 14-year-old son had also been confined since his adoption as a baby, neglected by the "domineering" mother and beaten by his father.
The adoptive parents, who cannot be identified, pleaded guilty at a Canadian court to abuse and assault charges earlier this week and will be sentenced in April. During the court hearing this week, the couple's natural daughter told how the boys were mistreated.
The boys went to school during the day but when they returned home they were confined to their cages and forced to wear nappies. At weekends the boys were allowed out of their cages for a bowl of cereal.
The court was told that the mother was domineering and controlling. She claimed both boys were "mentally challenged" and would run away from home and cause trouble if they were not locked up.
The father would beat the boys on her command. Police were only alerted to the boys' plight when relatives of the couple filed a complaint in 2001. Two child welfare officers found the youngsters at the farmhouse and immediately took them into foster care.
The father, 51, and mother, 42, pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and failure to provide the necessities of life, as part of a plea bargain.
Police also charged an adult male relative, who is alleged to have assisted with the abuse, with assault with a weapon and two charges of forcible confinement.
Story filed: 14:39 Friday 16th January 2004 | |
