A 5-year-old boy in Pennsylvania has been rescued after allegedly enduring horrific abuse including being forced to eat feces at the hands of his father, Charles Smitley, and his girlfriend, Colleen Cassidy.
According to The Shade Room, the nightmare came to light in April when the child’s grandfather noticed the boy was bruised, emaciated, and clearly neglected. He alerted police and rushed the child to the hospital, where doctors confirmed he hadn’t eaten properly in days and was covered in bruises.
During questioning, the boy revealed shocking details: he had been beaten with a paddle, tied to a chair, and forced to sleep on a bathroom floor with no blanket or pillow. Even worse, he said he was forced to eat his own feces.
On August 4, Smitley and Cassidy were arrested at their home and charged with endangering the welfare of children, unlawful restraint, and simple assault. They were arraigned and remanded to Westmoreland County Prison after failing to post bail—set at $250,000 for Smitley and $100,000 for Cassidy. Both children have since been removed from their care.
Between this case and the recent California tragedy where a father and stepmother tortured an 8-year-old girl to death, America’s “bad parenting” files are starting to read like a Netflix true-crime script gone horribly real.
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