A couple pleaded guilty of subjecting their four children to horrific abuse included forcing them to perform sex acts on each other. Brian and Monica Campbell, former child welfare workers, were arrested last year after footage surfaced showing their adopted children being subjected to years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse by them at their Hereford home in Arizona. On Monday, December 14, the couple accepted a plea deal to four counts of child abuse which meant they will each face a maximum of three years in prison. Prosecutors and attorneys for the children agreed to the plea deal.
The couple allegedly abused their four children between 2016 and 2018, including forcing them to perform sex acts on each other, use a cat litter box as a toilet and drink dirty water from a chicken coop, according to the Arizona Republic. Crime Online reported that the duo was also accused of making their children stand naked beside each other as a form of punishment. One of the victims, now 19, said he tried to get himself arrested and put in jail, which would have been safer than what he was being subjected to in his own home. “If jail was safer than a home, it’s not a home,” he said in an interview with the Arizona Republic. It’s a concentration camp. Mom threatened to kill us a few times. Monica said she would bury us in the desert, and no one would come look for us. Or she would feed us to the pigs.”
Court documents also said that Brian and Monica used a wooden spoon to strike the children, and also choked them. They also made the children wear prison uniforms, bound them with zip ties, and forced them to perform sex acts on each other. There were also instances where the couple gave the children a gun and dared them to shoot themselves.
The court previously heard that Monica left the children without food for two to three days. Brian also has a criminal record for previous abuse of the children. In July 2018, he was initially arrested after he was reportedly seen using a Taser on one of his teen sons at their home in surveillance footage. Brian was cited for domestic assault, but the case was dropped weeks later.
Brian was a caseworker for the state Department of Child Safety while Monica was a dispatcher for Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, the Republic reported. She was in charge of sending first responders to check out, among other things, complaints of child abuse. Monica resigned from her position in March. The couple had adopted the children out of the foster-care system of Arizona.
In September, Lynne Cadigan, one of the attorneys representing the children, filed a notice of a civil action against DCS and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office for reportedly having knowledge of the abuse but doing nothing to stop it. The Campbells’ home was described as a “house of horrors” where the children have suffered sexual, physical, psychological, and emotional abuse in the claim that sought $16 million in damages from the government agencies. The couple are scheduled to be sentenced on January 22.
Source : MEA Worldwide
