Texas Couple Accused Of Punishing 5-Year-Old By Forcing Her To Brush Teeth With Cat Feces Until Her Gums Bled
A Texas couple is behind bars this week after police say they enacted horrific punishments on their children, including forcing one young girl to brush her teeth with cat feces until her gums bled.
The story came out of San Antonio, where investigators say 32-year-old James Chalkley and 22-year-old Cheyanne Chalkley put their three children through a series of painful and disturbing abuses. As the Review Journal noted, police also accused the pair of beating the children with a thorny switch and using a shock collar to punish them.
An arrest warrant for the couple stated that a teacher noted bruising on the couple’s five-year-old child in September, sparking an investigation by child protective services. As ABC News reported, interviews with the children revealed horrific abuse from their parents, prompting officials to remove the children from the home and place them in foster care.
The children described one instance in which their father became infuriated when he believed they intentionally failed to clean up cat feces found in the family’s closet. He allegedly smeared the feces on two of the children, then forced the five-year-old girl to eat the feces and brush her teeth with the feces on the brush. As ABC News reported, the father is accused of brushing the girl’s teeth with such force that it caused the girl to bleed.
The five-year-old girl also reported to investigators that she was forced to wear a dog shock collar, which left green bruising on her skin.
The ABC News report noted that the children belonged to James Chalkley and at one point he asked his wife if she believed he was being too harsh in his punishment. Cheyanne Chalkley allegedly responded that if they were her children, she would hit them even more.
San Antonio child allegedly forced to brush teeth with cat feces as punishment, parents arrested https://t.co/YyBW9Luewp pic.twitter.com/jXA1Dnocpp
— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) October 31, 2017
According to ABC News, Texas Child Protective Services had visited the family on at least three occasions, including January of this year when the children were stripped of their clothing and forced to go outside, where they were sprayed with cold water as punishment for bad behavior. The report noted that the case was closed and labeled as high risk, but the children continued to live in the home with the couple.
After allegations that they forced a child to brush her teeth with feces, both James Chalkley and Cheyanne Chalkley were being held on charges of injury to a child.
[Featured Image by Bexar County Sheriff’s Office]
