Parents from Philadelphia suburb sentenced to prison after forcing 7 children to live in "filthy conditions"
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Bucks County mother and father were sentenced to up to 16 years in prison after they forced their seven children to "live in filthy conditions in a rundown trailer," the county district attorney's office said.
Shane Robertson, 48, and Crystal Robertson, 38, were sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to seven felony counts of child endangerment and six summary counts of animal neglect.
"It is appalling that you would live in these conditions with your seven children," Common Pleas Judge Charissa J. Liller said. "You treated your animals better than you treated your children. You kept them caged up like animals, but you weren't treating them as good."
The couple were sentenced to 8-16 years in state prison and will have mental health evaluations and treatment as well as drug and alcohol treatment, according to the DA. The judge also ordered them to have no contact with their children until they turn 18 and then only with the approval of a court-appointed therapist.
Officials showed evidence at the hearing that the children were living in "nightmarish" conditions in a trailer in the Green Top Mobile Home Park on Roseann Lane in West Rockhill Township. Several animals living there were getting better care, according to the DA. Evidence also included TikTok videos showing Crystal Robertson feeding her lizard pieces of salmon and brushing its teeth, the DA said.
The DA said numerous animals lived in the trailer, including the lizard, two dogs, two turtles, two rabbits, snakes, toads and several rats.
The children are in the custody of Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services and the animals were surrendered to the Bucks County SPCA, the DA said.
The children's situation was discovered in 2023 when police responded to a call from a neighbor that two of the children were taking things from an abandoned trailer. Officers found a trailer "in obvious disrepair and disarray," according to the DA. The trailer was dirty, cluttered and decaying, and animal feces was seen on clothing and on the floor, police said at the time. There was a lock on the refrigerator, and some of the children were malnourished and needed significant medical care, police said.