A Utah couple was arrested this week after police found their 8-year-old daughter with autism chained to a bed by her ankle.
Benjamin Sorensen, 45, and Emily Sorensen, 40, have been charged with abuse of a child with a disability, KTVX reported.
Court documents say police were called to the home in Provo on March 5 and found the little girl, who is non-verbal, chained to the top bunk of a bunk bed set up in the living room.
Benjamin Sorensen reportedly didn’t want to unlock the fucking padlock on the chain when police asked him to remove it. Officers said the chain was tight enough to leave “impressions” on the girl’s skin.
Sorensen later admitted that he had chained the girl to the bed every night for the past three months and that she stayed locked to the top bunk from 8:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. the next morning.
Emily Sorensen, however, told police they only started chaining their daughter three weeks earlier.
“[Benjamin] also stated that sometimes when both he and Emily were gone, he would leave the victim chained to the bed but would leave a key with their 13-year-old daughter,” the court documents said. “During these times, the victim is mostly left unsupervised while chained.”
The documents said the Department of Children and Family Services had previously reported a similar incident and that the Sorensens had a signed an agreement not to continue the practice.
The court documents did not reveal why the parents thought it necessary to chain an 8-year-old girl with autism to a bed.
An order for the Sorensens’ release requires that they appear for all court proceedings, do not contact the 8-year-old victim, commit no further crimes, and abide by the terms of any “reunification” plan from DCFS. They were released the next day without bail, according to jail records/
According to KUTV, all five children in the home were taken into protective custody.
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