A couple in Delaware, Ohio is facing several felony charges in relation to the alleged abuse of their seven children.
Prosecutors allege that Jason and Kristelle Fuller put their children through excessive punishments, including locking them in a shed overnight, feeding them dog food, hitting them with a belt, isolation tactics, physical restraint, and extreme physical exercise that have resulted in the loss of consciousness on occasion, according to 10TVNews.
Fuller is due to be arraigned on Thursday morning and is facing nine felony charges.
His wife was arraigned on four charges, including felony obstruction of justice, permitting child abuse, and misdemeanor endangering children, 10TVNews reported. Kristelle is also accused of forcing the children to lie about the abuse to authorities.
Sayje Brown with the Delaware County Prosecutor's Office said, "This defendant is a parent and violated the duty of care to protect all those minors during that period. Further, the defendant permitted this physical abuse that resulted in serious physical harm to at least one of the children."
The Delaware Police Department visited the family's home to investigate after they were notified by Delaware County Job and Family Services to look into the couple.
One of the victims told police he had been locked in a shed in the backyard overnight when he was 14 years old and fed dog food.
Neighbors noticed the children were disciplined after the Fullers moved to Delaware in 2015 but say they could not have known about the abuse described by prosecutors.
One neighbor, Anita Shively, told the news station that "it was well hidden. Now the kids have done a lot of work. They were telling me that when they ripped the drywall out of the basement, the kids did it, and they wanted to use everybody's trash cans for it."
"Now the kids said they also took turns being in charge of the meals, and they did all the cooking and all the cleaning, and I thought, That is a lot more than my kids did," Shively added.
One of the Fuller's daughters spoke on her mother's behalf in court and asked the judge to allow contact for her and her siblings with their mother.
The child cited that her mother was also a victim of her father's abuse; however, the judge denied the request and issued a no-contact order.
