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Parents put children in boxes and sealed them with duct tape while they went grocery shopping
An Ohio couple were charged this week with punishing their three children by forcing them into plastic boxes sealed with duct tape and only a square cut in the top for air.
Prosecutors allege the incident was part of a cycle of abuse by the couple.
J.D. Pooley
James Allen Taylor, 29, and stepmother Samantha Marie Taylor, 26, punished the children by putting them into the plastic boxes as punishment on June 16 at the family home in Steubenville, Ohio, it was alleged in court.
The court heard that after cramming them in the boxes, the couple went supermarket shopping and left two uncles at home with them, the Journal Star reported.
ABC News reported that it was part of a cycle of abuse by the parents that included having weights dropped on their feet, prosecutor Jeffrey J. Bruzzese said.
The children have been removed from the home and are in good health, the prosecutor said.
The Washington Post reported that the couple was indicted this week by a Jefferson County grand jury on charges of endangering children, a felony, and unlawful restraint, a misdemeanor.
Each also faced another felony endangering count related to ‘ongoing corporal punishment practices of the family.
The two uncles were also charged. Bruzzese said they helped put the children in the boxes, with one of them cutting the air holes.