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‘Feral child’ saved from sex abuse as Virginia man and woman sentenced to 108 years
Robert Eugene Clark, 39, was sentenced to 65 years in prison on nine counts that included rape, aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties.
Samantha Simmons, 30, was sentenced to 43 years on 11 counts that included aggravated sexual battery, sodomy and endangerment of a child.
2 sentenced to combined 108 years in prison for sexual abuse of children in Rockbridge
“She was a feral child; that’s the only way I could describe her,” Peggy Sigler, a caseworker for the Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services, testified Tuesday.
Sigler’s description of the girls’ home life — and the profound impact it had on their early childhood — came during hearings in which two family members were sentenced to a combined 108 years in prison for repeatedly molesting the two girls.
[...]
Despite what one attorney called “subhuman” conditions in the home, Rockbridge social services workers were slow to respond to complaints from concerned neighbors.
[...]
The former supervisor, who was accused of shredding some reports of child abuse that were made to the agency, also expressed little sympathy for the plight of the two young girls.
“They’re used to living that way so what’s the big deal?” she was quoted as saying in the grand jury report.
Details of sex abuse emerge as investigation of Rockbridge social services continues
According to a summary of evidence presented Tuesday, the 8-year-old confided to her foster mother and a counselor that over a four-month period in 2015, Clark repeatedly raped and molested her and her 3-year old sister, forced them to have sex with one another and beat them with a belt while they were naked.
Clark’s sister, Samantha K. Simmons, is charged with sexually abusing two young boys in a junked Ford van that sat nearby.
“This is one of the most disturbing child sex cases I’ve ever seen, much less dealt with,” said Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jared Moon.
[...]
Conditions in the homes had prompted at least two complaints to social services in 2014 and 2015, authorities have said. After hearing nothing from the agency, a concerned neighbor called the sheriff’s office, prompting McCullough to conduct a well-being check on the girls on the evening of Sept. 2, 2015.
Based on what he saw, McCullough called social services and asked the agency to investigate. Three days later, he made a follow-up call and was told a Child Protective Services employee had gone to the home but no one answered the door.
Only after repeated pressure from law enforcement — applied at the same time the regional office was hearing complaints about social services in Rockbridge — did the agency launch an investigation that led to the children being removed from the home.
Two convicted of child sex abuse in 'disturbing' Rockbridge County case
The report shows that social services workers went to the trailers after deputies investigated the situation in September 2015.
Moon, speaking on the phone Wednesday, described what they found.
"Both of them were just covered in roaches and other bugs. Thousands, if not millions, of bugs. Trash all over the house. The insects were inside the refrigerator, running through food, food that the children ate," said Moon.
The grand jury report shows the social worker who saw those conditions requested that the children be removed immediately, but her then-supervisor, who has since resigned, said, "They're used to living that way, so what's the big deal."
That social worker then obtained a protective order and she and another employee found a placement for the children themselves without the supervisor's approval, according to the report.
Robert Eugene Clark, 39, was sentenced to 65 years in prison on nine counts that included rape, aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties.
Samantha Simmons, 30, was sentenced to 43 years on 11 counts that included aggravated sexual battery, sodomy and endangerment of a child.
2 sentenced to combined 108 years in prison for sexual abuse of children in Rockbridge
“She was a feral child; that’s the only way I could describe her,” Peggy Sigler, a caseworker for the Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services, testified Tuesday.
Sigler’s description of the girls’ home life — and the profound impact it had on their early childhood — came during hearings in which two family members were sentenced to a combined 108 years in prison for repeatedly molesting the two girls.
[...]
Despite what one attorney called “subhuman” conditions in the home, Rockbridge social services workers were slow to respond to complaints from concerned neighbors.
[...]
The former supervisor, who was accused of shredding some reports of child abuse that were made to the agency, also expressed little sympathy for the plight of the two young girls.
“They’re used to living that way so what’s the big deal?” she was quoted as saying in the grand jury report.
Details of sex abuse emerge as investigation of Rockbridge social services continues
According to a summary of evidence presented Tuesday, the 8-year-old confided to her foster mother and a counselor that over a four-month period in 2015, Clark repeatedly raped and molested her and her 3-year old sister, forced them to have sex with one another and beat them with a belt while they were naked.
Clark’s sister, Samantha K. Simmons, is charged with sexually abusing two young boys in a junked Ford van that sat nearby.
“This is one of the most disturbing child sex cases I’ve ever seen, much less dealt with,” said Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jared Moon.
[...]
Conditions in the homes had prompted at least two complaints to social services in 2014 and 2015, authorities have said. After hearing nothing from the agency, a concerned neighbor called the sheriff’s office, prompting McCullough to conduct a well-being check on the girls on the evening of Sept. 2, 2015.
Based on what he saw, McCullough called social services and asked the agency to investigate. Three days later, he made a follow-up call and was told a Child Protective Services employee had gone to the home but no one answered the door.
Only after repeated pressure from law enforcement — applied at the same time the regional office was hearing complaints about social services in Rockbridge — did the agency launch an investigation that led to the children being removed from the home.
Two convicted of child sex abuse in 'disturbing' Rockbridge County case
The report shows that social services workers went to the trailers after deputies investigated the situation in September 2015.
Moon, speaking on the phone Wednesday, described what they found.
"Both of them were just covered in roaches and other bugs. Thousands, if not millions, of bugs. Trash all over the house. The insects were inside the refrigerator, running through food, food that the children ate," said Moon.
The grand jury report shows the social worker who saw those conditions requested that the children be removed immediately, but her then-supervisor, who has since resigned, said, "They're used to living that way, so what's the big deal."
That social worker then obtained a protective order and she and another employee found a placement for the children themselves without the supervisor's approval, according to the report.
