An Ohio couple who tortured their five adopted special needs sons, treating them “worse than prisoners of war in their own home” in “dungeon”-like conditions have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison.
Charles Edmonson, 64, and his wife, Matthew Edmonson, 50, were each charged in July with five felony counts of endangering children.
On December 27, Charles pleaded guilty to kidnapping, felonious assault and three counts of child endangering, according to WLWT. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
His wife pleaded guilty to five counts of child endangering. She was sentenced to 13 years behind bars.
Clermont County Prosecutor Mark J. Tekulve said the investigation into the couple began after Charles Edmonson was convicted in a separate case of sexually abusing another adopted child, who was an adult at the time.
That investigation led detectives to shocking footage of the Edmonson couple abusing their five young sons “worse than prisoners of war in their own home,” Tekulve said, according to WLWT.
The five boys are biological brothers who the couple fostered before formally adopting, Tekulve said, adding that they were kept in conditions he described as like a “dungeon.”
“The videos of these undernourished and naked children huddled up in a locked room in the basement, on the stone-cold basement floor like a pile of puppies trying to stay together to keep warm, are nothing short of gut-wrenching,” Tekulve said in a statement in June.
All five children, including 9-year-old triplets, a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old, suffered medical issues and were in and out of hospitals while in the care of their parents who downplayed their conditions, Tekulve said.
They have since been removed from the Edmonsons’ home and are now “thriving,” according to Tekulve.
“These two are unfit to be parents, and I am grateful to those who have worked tirelessly to make sure they will not be,” Tekulve said about the Edmonsons. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time and will not be the last time that my office has had to seek indictment for people like this who pretend to be ‘parents.’”
