The West Rockhill couple charged with keeping their 7 kids in squalor now face abuse charges
Prosecutors say Shane and Crystal Robertson regularly hit and whipped their children, and, in one instance, attempted to smother one of their daughters with a blanket.
The West Rockhill Township couple who police say kept their seven children in deplorable conditions inside their mobile home have been charged with assault after the children told investigators their parents regularly beat and whipped them.
Shane, 48, and Crystal Robertson, 38, were also charged with conspiracy for a pattern of abuse that spared none of their children, according to the affidavit of probable cause for their arrests. Shane Robertson also has been charged with strangulation, after one of the children told investigators that her father tried to smother her with a blanket.
» READ MORE: 7 children found living in deplorable conditions in shocking Bucks County discovery
The couple gained national attention in May, when their home’s squalid state was discovered by police, and they were charged with endangering the welfare of their children, the youngest of whom was 4.
All of the children, who have since moved in with other relatives, reported similar instances of violence, telling officers earlier this month that their parents “beat [them] up,” the affidavit said.
Shane Robertson’s attorney could not be reached for comment. Paul DiMaio, Crystal Robertson’s attorney, did not immediately return a request for comment.
The abuse included being punched and slapped by their parents, and being whipped with their father’s belt and electrical cords, the affidavit said. The daughter Robertson allegedly tried to smother told police her father told her to kill herself on two occasions, once handing her a kitchen knife and ordering her to stab herself in the bathroom. Once, as Robertson was beating one of his daughters, she was able to break free and run out of their home, the affidavit said. He chased her, and pulled her back inside by her hair.
The children said their father was much more aggressive than their mother, though they said she often encouraged the abuse, once saying, “Do whatever you want, kill them if you want,” according to the affidavit.
Police first encountered the Robertsons’ children after they caught one of them stealing from a trailer near their home in the Green Top Mobile Park. The girl was malnourished and sickly, and told the officers she had taken only a blanket to keep her pet rats warm, according to court filings.
» READ MORE: ‘It tore me apart’: Bucks County neighbors describe shock after seven children removed from decrepit conditions
Inside the Robertsons’ home on Roseann Lane, investigators were shocked to discover the conditions the family was living in. Feces from multiple animals — including the family’s prized iguana, which had its own TikTok account maintained by the couple — was strewn throughout, as was garbage. The trailer was deteriorating, police said, and Crystal Robertson told officers she had fallen through its rotted floor months earlier.
The couple’s children were crammed into the trailer, four of them hidden in a back room. Almost all were critically malnourished and riddled with health issues ranging from COVID-19, low kidney function, and dental abscesses to maggots, sunburned scalp, and ringworm, investigators said.
Police said they had no formal education and lacked basic knowledge, struggling with reading, writing, and spelling. Some did not know their own birthdays.
The children also complained about a lack of food, saying they were “starving,” and told investigators their parents beat them and accused them of stealing if they took food from the refrigerator or Crystal Robertson’s purse, the affidavit said. Prosecutors noted that the refrigerator in the home was locked when authorities searched the house.
Both Robertsons remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of bail: $50,000 for Shane Robertson and $25,000 for his wife.