A Canton couple is accused of keeping a 7-year-old girl, who weighed only 28 pounds, in a dog cage in the basement of their home, according to police and court records.
Lillian Cottrell, 29, and her boyfriend, Derek Mayle, 30, were arrested after a grand jury indicted them on charges of endangering children.
The child stayed with a relative for about two weeks in the summer of 2019, according to Assistant Prosecutor Dan Petricini. When the relative was preparing to drop off the child, “that’s when the child said, but I don’t want to go back to [Cottrell’s] house because I have to sleep in the cage,” Petricini said.
The relative has had full legal custody of the girl since then, Petricini said.
The charges were part of a secret indictment, which alleges that Cottrell and Mayle did “torture and cruelly abuse” the child from Jan. 1, 2019 to July 30, 2019.
A Canton police spokesman said the girl was kept in the dog cage as a form of punishment, and that it was locked with a pad lock.
Two older children lived in the home, but their custody has changed and they are living with a relative, Petricini said. Detectives don’t believe the other children were abused or neglected in the same way as the girl, according to police.
Cottrell and Mayle's bond is set at $1 million.
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This dumb bitch will not experience half cruelty, pain and suffering that poor child is saddle with for life. She will have guaranteed meals, medical, friends and company, no cruelty or beatings and a fucking bed.. I hope whoever has her understands this child's need for physical attachment to people and things and makes her life as stable and caring as possible. Hopefully the child doesn't suffer from emotional attachment disorder.
