North Carolina Couple Faces Charges After Keeping Teenager In Dog Kennel

A North Carolina couple faces charges of child abuse after police found a 13-year-old locked in a dog kennel.

Fox News reported Lacy Douglas Hocutt Jr., 34, and Rachelleigh Marie Galasso, 33, were arrested this week. The pair were denied bond and will remain in Wake County Jail following a hearing, WRAL reported.

The 13-year-old was one of six children in the home. According to WRAL, all six suffered from signs of abuse and neglect. For example, prosecutors said that one child’s scoliosis was left so untreated that she “will have to suffer from the condition for the remainder of her life.”

WRAL reported that investigators had to enter the home in protective gear because of the level of filth in the home. The station reported that none of the children could read or write and that some of them will have to have rotted teeth removed. In court, prosecutors noted that a 7-year-old “cannot eat without pain.”

Prosecutors told the judge during the bond hearing that the 13-year-old who was kept in the kennel was so underweight that it was life-threatening.

“He now rocks back and forth and all kind of yells, 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 that cage,” the prosecutor said in court.