Father Accused of Beating, Raping Twin Daughters Sentenced

A stock photo of a judge's gavel. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Warning: details of this story may be disturbing!

MINNEAPOLIS—A 52-year-old Minneapolis man accused of beating and raping his mentally disabled twin daughters has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Hennepin County Judge Fred Karasov sentenced the man Wednesday, Feb. 20, for crimes committed against the women when they were teenagers, and for endangering his third daughter, who is a juvenile.

One of the twins said in a victim impact statement that their father “hurt, used, and abused the whole family.” The statement said the woman hoped her father would spend the rest of his life chained up the same way he had chained his two daughters to their beds and door.

The man pleaded guilty last week to first-degree criminal sexual conduct, first-degree assault, and gross misdemeanor child endangerment. Six other counts were dismissed under a plea deal.

The twins, now 22-years-old, were not at the hearing.

Injuries Clinically Diagnostic Of Torture

One of the twins escaped to alert authorities last May.

County human services official a short time later removed the other twin and a younger sister from the family’s home.

Child safety experts who examined the twins soon after they were removed their parents’ care concluded that their injuries were “clinically diagnostic of torture.”

Authorities said the man was upset that one of the twins had become sexually active and felt they were eating too much.

In a petition for a protection order that a Hennepin County judge granted in June, the twin who was impregnated twice said she did not “ever remember having enough food.”

“He forced me to have sex, he has done this to me every day since I was in my early teens or so,” the twin’s account continued. “He did this to my twin sister also.”

According to the complaint, the other twin, identified as Victim A, said that once her parents realized she was “sexually active,” her father repeatedly put a dog chain tightly around one or both ankles and connected it to the parents’ bedroom door “to prevent her from seeing men” and to deny her food. The twin said her father would beat her while she was bound, and that her twin, referred to as Victim B, also was chained.

An exam of Victim A found a “largely detached” left ear, and scars on her forehead, scalp, and back. She also had a chronic limp from being chained around her ankle so tightly and could not see out of her left eye after her father allegedly stomped on her head.

In June, a nurse saw that Victim B was crying, and she said her father had raped her and that she was pregnant by him. She said he “routinely raped her” when her mother was not home, the complaint said.

A spokesman for the Hennepin County attorney’s office said charges were filed against the father once enough evidence had been gathered. Chuck Laszewski also said the office worked with child protection workers to immediately place the minors in out-of-home care.

Online court records do not list a defense attorney who could comment on the father’s behalf.

How to Report Suspected Child Maltreatment

If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, contact your local child protective services office or law enforcement agency so officials can investigate and assess the situation. Most states have a number to call to report abuse or neglect.

To find out where to call, consult the State Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Numbers website.

A teenage girl, who claims to be a victim of sexual abuse and alleged grooming, poses in Rotherham, England, on Sept. 3, 2014. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The Childhelp organization also can provide crisis assistance and other counseling and referral services. Contact them at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453).

“Every year more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies involving more than 6.6 million children (a referral can include multiple children),” according to Childhelp.