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A Suffolk couple pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison time this week on child cruelty and abduction charges from 2019.

James Ray Peck, 51, and April Marie Peck, 46, both pleaded guilty to charges of abduction and child cruelty. James Peck was sentenced to three years to serve, and April Peck was sentenced to four and a half years to serve.

Police responded to the residence at 1210 Holland Road on Dec. 5, 2019, in response to a request for a welfare check from a concerned citizen. They found four children living in squalid conditions, and one of them was found tied up in the bathroom. The Pecks admitted to police at the time that it was a method of punishment they used for the boy, according to a criminal complaint filed at the time of the arrest. Drug paraphernalia was also found in the home.

The children were not the Pecks’ children, but they did have custody of them at the time. They were removed from the home.