GEORGETOWN, Ohio — Thursday, a Brown County judge sentenced Charles and Margaret Breeze in a child abuse case that stems back to at least 2019. That’s when police arrested the couple, accusing them of starving, isolating and abusing an 11-year-old girl in their care.
Prosecutors said a home school teacher heard the girl say she was hungry and alerted authorities. Investigators would later say the Breezes watched her with a camera, beat her, made her wear a diaper, and fed her one plate of rice per day.
She weighed 47 pounds and was in liver failure when investigators rescued her, doctors said.
The couple pleaded guilty to the abuse, and a judge sentenced them to 10 to 13 years in prison.
The child wrote a letter to the Breezes, and a prosecutor read it in court. It said in part, “You stole my childhood. You stole my development, but I refuse to allow you to steal my future.”
The woman who adopted the little girl spoke to WCPO 9 News after the sentencing. We are not releasing her name to protect the child’s identity.
She told us, “She's wonderful. She attends regular school. She's in the seventh grade. She's a straight A student. She's learned a lot about life after being isolated for all the years."
She went on to say, “Although we feel like Margaret probably didn't get as much time as she deserved for what she did, we're thankful that it's finally over.
Margaret will go to Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. Charles will go to a correctional facility in Orient for 90 days to 6 months. Then, he will transfer to another prison.
Charles has another court hearing Friday. He is accused of abusing another child in his care. He faces six counts of rape and two counts of sexual battery in that case
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