PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Bucks County mother and father have been sentenced to up to 16 years in prison after forcing their seven children to live “in filthy conditions in a dilapidated mobile home,” the county district attorney’s office said.
Shane Robertson, 48, and Crystal Robertson, 38, were sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to seven counts of child abuse and six counts of animal neglect.
“It’s horrible that you and your seven children are living in these conditions,” said Common Pleas Judge Charissa J. Liller. “You treated your animals better than you treated your children. You locked them up like animals, but you didn’t treat them very well.”
The couple was sentenced to 8-16 years in prison and will undergo mental health evaluations and treatment, as well as drug and alcohol treatment, the prosecutor said. The judge also ordered them to have no contact with their children until they turn 18 and then only with the approval of a court-appointed therapist.
Officials presented evidence during the hearing that the children were living in “nightmarish” conditions in a trailer at the Green Top Mobile Home Park on Roseann Lane in West Rockhill Township. Several animals living there were receiving better care, according to the prosecutor. The evidence also included TikTok videos of Crystal Robertson feeding her pet lizard bits of salmon and brushing her teeth, the prosecutor said.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, several animals lived in the trailer, including the lizard, two dogs, two turtles, two rabbits, snakes, toads and several rats.
The children have been placed in the care of Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services and the animals have been turned over to the Bucks County SPCA, the district attorney said.
The situation of the children was discovered in 2023 when police responded to a call from a neighbor that two of the children were taking belongings from an abandoned trailer. Officers found a trailer “in clear disrepair and disarray,” according to the district attorney’s office. The trailer was dirty, cluttered and rotting, and animal feces were seen on clothing and on the floor, police said at the time. The refrigerator had a lock on it, and some of the children were malnourished and required significant medical attention, police said.
