In North Carolina, a couple faces accusations of subjecting their six children to severe mistreatment, including confining one child in a kennel filled with feces inside their unkempt home, as reported by authorities last week.
Lacy Douglas Hocutt Jr., aged 34, and Rachel Leigh Galasso, aged 33, were taken into custody on Wednesday. They are accused of exposing their children, who range in age from one to 15, to deplorable living conditions, according to the Wake County Prosecutor’s Office.
The children were removed from the residence in mid-February, as each was reportedly suffering from various health issues, according to statements from prosecutors shared by WRAL.
One of the children, a teenage girl, has such advanced scoliosis that it is now beyond surgical correction, leaving her to endure the condition permanently, as detailed in court documents obtained by the News and Observer.
Prosecutors further allege that two of the children had dental issues so severe that they required the extraction of adult teeth and experience constant pain while chewing. Meanwhile, a 13-year-old boy was reportedly kept in a dog cage, found covered in feces, with his weight dangerously low.
The boy’s malnutrition had reached a critical, life-threatening stage, according to the allegations.
“He now rocks back and forth, and all he yells is, ‘You’re never getting out. You’re never getting out,’ which we can only assume is what was screamed at him while he was in there,” an assistant district attorney said in court Thursday, according to WRAL.
Hocutt allegedly raped one of the children for at least four years, dating back to as early as October 2017, according to an arrest warrant obtained by the News and Observer.
He is facing three counts of statutory rape of a child 15 or younger and six more counts of statutory rape of a child by an adult.
Galasso is charged with two counts of negligent child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury and two counts of negligent child abuse resulting in serious physical injury, according to the News and Observer.
When Child Protective Services and the sheriff’s office reached the home, it was “so filthy that investigators had to wear protective gear,” the prosecutor said, according to WRAL.
The six kids also couldn’t read or write because they did not attend school, prosecutors said.
Hocutt and Galasso were arrested inside a Raleigh motel on Wednesday.
