After a two-month long jury trial, a couple in Washington State have finally been sentenced for abusing their young children. Christopher Sefton and Lori Lloyd are accused of mistreating all three of the children in their care. According to the charges they took an especially sick interest in torturing Sefton’s 6-year-old son.
The boy was beaten and forced to exercise while simultaneously being denied sleep. He was only fed a disgusting concoction of blended hot dogs and cooking oil which left his small body emaciated.
It took months of suspicion and attempts at intervention from the school as well as dozens of calls to Child Protective Services before the young boy was taken to the emergency room at Seattle Children’s in March of 2014. By then his stomach was distended from malnutrition.
“His body was literally shutting down,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Cecelia Gregson told SeattlePi. “They were using food to torture him. It has the added benefit of trying to kill him, but it was a very effective form of torture.”
School administrators had grown worried when they discovered the frequently bruised boy pulling food out of school trash cans to feed himself. After he nearly choked on a discarded muffin they created a “share basket” so he would have something to eat.
Sefton objected to the school’s attempts to help his son. Citing imaginary “dietary restrictions” he threatened to sue the school district if concerned employees did not stop feeding the boy.
During the trial, both Sefton and Lloyd’s attorneys attempted to paint the disgusting adults as martyrs, just doing the best they could for their children. Lloyd’s daughter and the couple’s toddler have both been placed in safer homes since their parents’ arrest.
Defense attorney Joseph Richards claimed Sefton was the victim of overreaction by both school staff and police.
“Mr. Sefton was an engaged parent and a proactive parent,” Richards told the jury.
Richardson further tried to spin the boy’s twice daily diet of hot dog smoothies (a blended mixture of bread, carrots, water, hot dogs and oil) as a parenting choice Sefton had the right to make for his son.
“Mr. Sefton didn’t keep food from (his son),” Richards said. “He chose what he got to eat.”
It’s amazing he was able to keep a straight face after police revealed smug text messages Lloyd and Sefton had exchanged regarding their treatment of the child.
Ultimately, the judge felt the abuse was so extreme that he handed down 20-year sentences for both Lloyd and Sefton, well beyond what is customary in child abuse cases.
“Judge Cayce held that to give the standard range would be to ignore the jury’s imposition of multiple aggravating factors and would not result in a fair or just sentence,” Gregson said after the hearing. “He found that 20 years was warranted in this case because it was exceptional in every way.”
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