Belt, hands, cords used to beat seven Sellersville kids, court documents claim
A Sellersville couple charged with neglecting their seven children also beat, punched, suffocated and threatened the kids, court documents show.
Shane Robertson, 47, and Crystal Robertson, 38, were arraigned Monday on multiple counts of misdemeanor simple assault and conspiracy. They were sent to Bucks County Jail on $500,000 and $250,000 bail respectively.
Shane Robertson faces an additional felony charge of strangulation for allegedly forcibly holding a blanket over the face of one daughter to the point she struggled to breathe.
Parents charged with felony neglect Bucks County parents of 7 charged. Sick kids living in filth, with rats, no food, police say
The children were placed in foster care after the Robertsons were charged earlier this year with seven counts of felony endangering the welfare of children.
Police had been called to the family’s three-bedroom mobile home in April for a report of children taking items out of an abandoned trailer. The preliminary hearing on those charges is scheduled for next week.
Pennridge Regional Police Department reported officers found the children living in squalid conditions and suffering from malnutrition and other preventable health problems. Police allege that none of the children, who range in age from 4 to 16, have attended school and some did not know their birthdays.
Two dozen pets the couple owned, including a 4-foot long exotic lizard with its own TikTok account, though, were found to be well cared for, according to police. The animals were later seized by the Bucks County SPCA.
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The new criminal charges follow ChildLine reports earlier this month that the couple physically abused their children.
In forensic interviews after the new allegations surfaced, the children reported “numerous, specific” incidents of ongoing physical abuse by their parents, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The children told interviewers they were routinely beat with hands, electrical cords and a belt.
“We got beat by daddy and mommy a lot,” one of the children said, according to the affidavit.
The children alleged their parents would beat them for taking food out of the refrigerator or their mother’s purse when they were hungry. Police found the refrigerator secured with a bicycle lock, which Crystal Robertson said they put on because the children were "stealing everything.”
Other alleged incidents, according to the affidavit, include:
Being struck by the couple after the family dog was hit by a car after two children let the pet outside
One girl suffering a bloody nose after being punched by her father and then being dragged back into the trailer by her hair.
During an argument between the couple, Shane Robertson threatened to suffocate one child and Crystal Robertson responded, “do whatever you want. Kill them if you want.”
Shane Robertson held a blanket over a child’s face. Other siblings described the same incident in interviews including a sibling who said she could hear her sister struggling to breathe and gasping for air.
Robertson also allegedly gave a knife to the same child he allegedly smothered and told her to go into the bathroom and stab herself. Another time he told her to go behind the shed and kill herself.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Sellersville parents face new criminal charges of abusing their 7 kids
