Ohio Teen Who Was Allegedly Shackled in Basement Testifies That Stepdad and His Son Sexually Assaulted Her

An Ohio teen who was allegedly shackled in a basement for up to a year testified this week about her captors' alleged sexual abuse.

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An Ohio teenager who was allegedly kept shackled in a basement and repeatedly sexually assaulted by her stepfather and his son took the stand Wednesday. Timothy Ciboro and his son Esten Ciboro have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges including rape and kidnapping, the New York Daily Newsreported. They have both elected to represent themselves.

“You didn't treat me like you were my dad," the alleged victim, accompanied by a therapy dog, told Timothy Ciboro in court. "Normal fathers wouldn't do sexual stuff to their kids." The girl's mother, according to testimony, left the Ciboros residence when she was 7 years old. Shortly after, the alleged abuse began.

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While on the witness stand, the alleged victim said that Esten was the "first to touch her inappropriately" and that Timothy later did the same. When asked to name the longest period of time she spent shackled in the basement, the Toledo Bladereports the girl revealed she was once "down there for a year."

During a pretrial hearing Friday, Esten declared the Holy Bible the "only law book that truly matters." Furthermore, he and Timothy requested a copy of the book be allowed on the defense table in the courtroom. "There's a great deal of strategy in scripture and I use those strategies in everything I do," Esten said, according to the Toledo Blade.

The Ciboros were arrested in 2016 after the girl managed to escape from the residence. She was discovered by Karen Loudermill, who testified Monday that she knew something was wrong immediately. "For a 13-year-old child to be looking the way she was looking and smelling the way she was smelling, something was wrong," Loudermill said. After police were alerted, they later searched the Ciboros' home and found leg irons.

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