Ohio couple accused of torturing, abusing 5 adopted children

QUINLAN BENTLEY   Cincinnati Enquirer

Two Clermont County parents are accused of torturing and "cruelly abusing" their five adopted boys, according to prosecutors.

Matthew and Charles Edmonson of Batavia were indicted Tuesday on five felony counts of child endangering in connection with the abuse, the Clermont County Prosecutor's Office said in a news release.

The children, who were all biologically related but adopted by the Edmonsons, were first brought to the married couple as foster children.

Prosecutors said the children had been in and out of the hospital for various reasons, including bruising, bleach burns and possible internal bleeding − symptoms that were all explained away by their adoptive parents.

"These (five) boys were born with many medical issues, and instead of being properly nurtured and cared for, they were traumatized, neglected, and abused," the release states.

Officials with the Clermont County Sheriff's Office and Clermont County Children's Protective Services made numerous efforts to help the boys but the needed evidence wasn't uncovered until Charles Edmonson, the father, was convicted of having sexual relations with a different adopted son, prosecutors said.

The evidence included numerous videos of the parents "treating these beloved special needs children worse than prisoners of war in their own home," the release states, adding the abuse happened daily.

"The videos of these undernourished and naked children huddled up in a locked room in the basement, on the stone-cold basement floor like a pile of puppies trying to stay together to keep warm, are nothing short of gut-wrenching," Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said in a statement.

"These two are unfit to be parents and I am grateful to those who have worked tirelessly to make sure they will not be," Tekulve added.

Records show that Matthew Edmonson, 49, is currently housed at the Clermont County Jail. Her husband, 63-year-old Charles Edmonson, is at the Noble Correctional Institution.

If convicted as charged, the couple faces up to 18 years in prison.