Mother charged with child abuse
Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 14, 2006
A northern Suffolk mother who allegedly kept her 12-year-old child locked in a bedroom has been charged with felony child abuse and neglect, police report.
The 36-year-old woman, who lives in a subdivision off Nansemond Parkway, posted bond shortly after her arrest, said Lt. Debbie J. George, spokeswoman for the Suffolk Police Department.
The Suffolk News-Herald is not releasing the woman’s name or address in order to protect the child’s identity.
Police who were called out to assist Child Protective Services late Wednesday found that the child was locked in her bedroom whenever she was not at school or eating meals, said George. The bedroom did not have lights and the child did not have access to bathroom facilities, she added.
“There was no sign that the child was not physically cared for properly,” George said, and the abuse charge accuses the woman of not providing safe, sanitary conditions for her child to live in, she said.
The child has been removed from her family’s custody, George said.