Guardians ‘tortured’ teen for nearly a decade with boiling water, beatings, locking her in closets with a bucket for human waste: Police

Latricia Crawley and Benjamin Lockett (Broward County Sheriff

Latricia Crawley and Benjamin Lockett (Broward County Sheriff’s Office)

A 46-year-old woman and her 43-year-old boyfriend in Florida were arrested this week for allegedly torturing and abusing a 15-year-old girl in their care for nearly a decade, leaving the child with scars from head to toe. Latricia Elizabeth Crawley and Benjamin Deztuan Lockett were taken into custody on Wednesday and each charged with one count of aggravated child abuse and one count of child neglect with great bodily harm, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers with the Margate Police Department on Wednesday responded to the couple’s residence located in the 20 block of NW 79th Terrace after the victim wrote a message to her online instructor saying that “she needed help” and “asked to have the police sent to her home.”

Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they found the victim with a laceration on the side of her head that was swollen and bleeding. Officers learned that Lockett had punched the victim in the face with a closed fist, “causing her head to slam into the corner of a desk,” the affidavit states. The child was transported to Broward Health Coral Springs for treatment.

“While the victim was receiving treatment, your affiant was notified that Margate Police Officers observed evidence of significant long-term trauma on the victim’s body during examination,” police wrote. “The trauma witnessed was scars consistent with ligature marks, bruising, scar tissue, bite marks from insects, and general signs and symptoms of malnutrition.”

The victim told a detective that Crawley and Lockett had been her legal guardians since 2014, since which time they had “willfully and maliciously tortured the victim, unlawfully caged the victim in two different closets, and have willfully abused the victim in manners that have caused permanent disfigurement.” the affidavit states.

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