MARGATE, Fla. – Margate police have arrested two people who are accused of torturing a 15-year-old girl for years who they were the legal guardians of.
According to one of the suspect’s arrest report, officers responded to the victim’s home Wednesday after she wrote to her online instructor, saying that she needed help and asking to have the police sent to her home.
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Margate police said officers arrived at the house and discovered that Benjamin Deztuan Lockett, 43, had punched the victim in the head because he thought she had eaten candy, causing her head to slam into the corner of a desk.
The victim suffered a cut to the left side of her head, which was bleeding and had visible swelling, the report stated.
According to the report, the victim was transported to Broward Health Coral Springs where officers noticed that she had other injuries on her body, including “scars consistent with ligature marks, bruising, scar tissue, bite marks from insects and symptoms of malnutrition.”
Police said the girl explained that Lockett and Latricia Elizabeth Crawley, 46, have had custody of her since 2014 and have tortured her in various ways over the years, also caging her in two different closets, forcing her to urinate and defecate in a bucket.
Alleged abuse listed in the arrest report included:
- 2019: 11 years of age, (Lockett) kicked her in the chin, resulting in a noticeable permanent scar, observed by your affiant.
- 2021: 13 years of age, (Crawley) oiled the knees of the victim and forced the victim to kneel on rice for several hours at a time, for several days in a row, resulting in permanent disfigurement to the victim’s knees in the form of scar tissue, observed by this affiant.
- 2021: 13 years of age, (Crawley) tied the victim to a fixed object and struck her toes with a hammer. According to the victim, this resulted in severe pain and bleeding.
- 2022: 14 years of age, (Crawley and Lockett) tied and bound the victim to different objects on multiple occasions with a nylon rope, resulting in permanent disfigurement to the victim’s skin on her shoulders, wrists and areas of her stomach in the form of scarring and hyperpigmentation, observed by your affiant.
- 2022: 14 years of age, (Crawley) threw a pot of boiling water at the victim causing permanent disfigurement in the form of scarring to the victim’s stomach, observed by your affiant.
According to the report, officers went to the victim’s home and found two closets that had locking mechanisms.
Droplets of blood were also seen on the floor inside one of the closets where the victim said she ran to after being punched by Lockett, however the blood had been cleaned up by the time officers returned later in the day, police said.
Authorities said the victim told officers that she would sometimes be tied up with zip ties inside the closets and was forced to sleep there.
She said Crawley “would often pour cold water on (her) while she slept, just to see her wake up,” the report stated.
According to the report, the victim said that one form of punishment by Crawley included having her eyes taped shut while her head was dunked into water.
An officer wrote in the report that the victim became so upset while recalling that punishment, she had to be given time to recover before continuing to speak with the officer.
According to the report, the victim showed multiple signs of malnutrition and starvation, including reddening of the nail bed and the outline of her bones being visible, especially around her spine.
Police said Crawley never made any attempts to locate or check on the victim while she was with officers and expressed her desire to release custody of the victim.
The girl is now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Jail records show Crawley and Lockett were arrested on charges of aggravated child abuse and child neglect with great bodily harm.
As of Thursday morning, Lockett remained held at the Broward County Main Jail in lieu of a $25,000 bond.