Parents accused of locking the door to their refrigerator as they made their seven kids live in “nightmarish conditions” are now prison-bound, Pennsylvania authorities say.

Shane Robertson, 48, and Crystal Robertson, 38, pleaded guilty earlier this year to seven felony counts of child endangerment, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said in an Aug. 20 news release.

As the couple appeared in court Aug. 20, Common Pleas Judge Charissa J. Liller sentenced the parents to eight to 16 years in prison, according to the district attorney.

Liller referred to the Robertsons as “two of the worst parents I’ve ever seen in my life,” authorities said.

‘Deplorable living conditions’ discovered

Pennridge Regional Police Department officers uncovered the signs of child neglect in April 2023 after two children were seen “taking items from an abandoned trailer,” prosecutors said.

“The children said they entered the trailer to get a blanket to keep their rats warm since their parents had no money,” authorities said in the news release.

Officers eventually spoke with the children’s parents after expressing concern for the kids’ health and appearance, the district attorney said. After entering the family’s trailer in West Rockhill Township, police said they found “obvious disrepair and disarray.”

The floor of the home was decaying, the district attorney said, noting that dirty clothes with animal feces on them covered the floors. Additionally, prosecutors said there were no cleaning or hygienic products in the home.

Little food was found inside the refrigerator, which was locked by the parents with the key kept in the mother’s purse, prosecutors said. Crystal Robertson complained about the kids stealing food, calling them “garbage disposals with legs,” according to an affidavit.

While the kids lived in filth, the parents’ dozens of animals were well-cared for, according to the district attorney. One of the animals, a lizard, had his own TikTok account and was shown in a video eating salmon.

“You treated your animals better than you treated your children,” Liller told the parents in court. “You kept them caged up like animals, but you weren’t treating them as good.”

Kids found malnourished and without education

The Robertsons initially told officers they had only three children, but an investigation revealed they actually had seven children between the ages of 4 and 16 living in the home, prosecutors said.

The children who were initially undiscovered had been found hiding in a bedroom during a follow-up visit, court records show.

Six of the kids, according to the news release, were determined to be “clinically malnourished” when evaluated at a hospital.

“Many of them were sick, including two that tested positive for Covid,” the district attorney said. “Some of the children had poor eyesight, one had maggots in her hair, and all had poor dental hygiene. Two of the children had to have oral surgery that required five of their teeth being extracted, and one of them had a dangerous abscess in his mouth with 13 visible cavities.”

Without a formal education, the children “lacked basic knowledge” and some were unable to tell authorities their birth date, prosecutors said.

Despite showing improvement since being removed from the home, the children will likely experience a lifetime of psychological effects, Deputy District Attorney Brittney M. Kern said.

-------

©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit at charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.