Minnesota parents jailed for locking children in cages

What’s New

A couple has been jailed after keeping their four children locked up in cages.

Benjamin Taylor Cotton, 42, and Christina Ann Cotton, 40, will now spend four years behind bars themselves after pleading guilty to child torture in Red Wing, Minnesota. The pair, whose children were aged between two and nine at the time, were sentenced on Friday.

The couple were investigated after a caller contacted the Goodhue County Health and Human Services in August 2022 to raise concerns about how the children were being looked after. The agency sent out an investigator and a police officer to the home, while a police investigation was later launched that saw the couple charged.

Newsweek has reached out by email to the Goodhue County Health and Human Services seeking comment.

Why It Matters

The case comes as experts warn how widespread child abuse is across the U.S., with a 2022 study suggesting that school closures during the pandemic may have allowed some cases to slip under the radar. “Child maltreatment is a vexing problem in the U.S.,” said study author Maria Fitzpatrick, a professor of economics and public policy at Cornell University’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. “To protect children, we need to better understand why so many are maltreated—13 percent according to one study and 4 in 10 according to another[…] Early detection is crucial because it leads to quicker intervention and that can result in providing a child with a safe, permanent home.”

What To Know

The Cottons were charged in June 2023 on 16 counts, ranging from child torture and endangerment to neglect and malicious punishment. However, as part of a plea deal earlier this year, the pair pleaded guilty to one count each of child torture, while the other 15 charges were dismissed.

The couple are accused of keeping their children regularly locked up in cages for around four years.

A report written after the initial welfare check by police and the Goodhue County Health and Human Services stated that Christina Cotton told the investigators her children were “locked up for their safety” so they couldn’t access knives or household chemicals. She claimed they were usually only looked up at night, and were only locked up on the day of the investigators’ visit because she had woken up late. She said the cages kept her children from dying and said if they subsequently died after being released it would be the fault of the police and human services.

The human services worker found the couple’s 2-year-old in a playpen converted into a cage with a dog gate lashed across the top. Two other children, aged five and seven, were inside a bunkbed that had been “converted into an actual cage with a homemade wooden door,” the report stated. The 9-year-old was not confined when the investigators visited the home. At the time of the visit, going by the times told to them by Christina Cotton, the other three children had been confined for around 13 hours.

The children were taken to hospital for assessment, with the oldest three noted to have significant bruising on their bodies, according to a report. The 7-year-old alleged their hands had been duct taped behind their back at one point and said they and their siblings were hit with a belt as a punishment. The toddler was in a soiled diaper that had been duct taped to their skin.

None of the children have been named by the authorities.

What People Are Saying

Newsweek has contacted the Goodhue County Health and Human Services seeking comment on the case.

What Happens Next

The authorities have not revealed where the rescued children are now and who is looking after them. Meanwhile, their parents are beginning their four-year sentence this week.