A four-year-old girl was tied up, beaten and shocked with a dog collar in a terrifying ordeal that landed her father and another woman in prison.
The girl’s father, Javon Markquez Ingram, 31, and Larissa Duncan, 47, were sentenced to 15 and 10 years in prison, respectively, this week for torturing the unnamed girl at their home in Portland, Oregon.
The sadistic abuse was discovered in late 2022 when Ingram took her daughter to the hospital after she suffered seizures, at which point doctors found more than 30 injuries across her body and called police.
Ingram initially told police his injuries were self-inflicted, before shocking evidence was found on his phone and at his home, including torture footage and a wooden board with cable ties.
After the two were sentenced this week, an attorney for the girl filed a $15 million lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Human Services, alleging the agency failed to investigate multiple reports about the treatment as it took place for years.
Inside this home in Portland, Oregon, prosecutors say a young girl was subjected to a terrifying ordeal of years of torture and abuse that led to her father and another woman being jailed this week.
Ingram was granted custody of the girl in January 2019, when she was 2 years old, due to her mother’s methamphetamine addiction, according to a police affidavit.
Duncan lived with Ingram and Oregon Live He says that he considered her his mother even though they are not related.
When Ingram took her daughter to Randall Children’s Hospital in late 2022 for treatment of seizures, medical staff immediately called police to the hospital.
“Detectives entered the hospital room and were immediately horrified at the sight of her,” a Multnomah County deputy prosecutor wrote in a memo.
The memo said the girl told officers she was often restrained with zip ties, chains, blindfolds, gags and duct tape and described being beaten with a belt.
According to reported court documents, the girl said she was bound with “dollar-dollar zip ties and duct tape” and a dog shock collar that delivered electric shocks to her, before being left in a bathroom or shed tied to a high chair.
It was also discovered that he had never attended any kind of education, was only given food from a blender, and was not toilet trained.
Police said the girl was bound with duct tape and zip ties, wearing a dog shock collar and fed only food from a blender. A burned-out car is seen on the property.
In the days following the hospital visit, a search warrant was obtained and executed at Ingram’s home, which yielded more evidence of the abuse.
When questioned by police, Ingram initially attempted to claim her injuries were self-inflicted, however medical assessments found this to be “not plausible”.
Child abuse pediatrician Heather McKeag officially diagnosed the girl’s injuries as “torture,” and Ingram was arrested in November 2022.
Detectives found images of the torture on his phone, leading Ingram to finally confess to the horrific experience.
According to his arrest affidavit, Ingram told detectives: “I’ve done some horrible things in these photographs… I know what I did was (redacted).”
He then asked the police: “So what are you accusing me of? Torture?”
Ingram was charged with 24 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, three counts of first-degree assault and nine counts of third-degree assault. He later pleaded guilty to the charges.
Duncan was also arrested after the abuse was discovered, and her attorney, William Walsh, argued during her sentencing that she had a “more passive” role.
Walsh said alcohol and prescription drug abuse were factors in his role.
Ingram admitted to police that “I know what I did was wrong” after they confronted him with evidence of the shocking abuse from his phone.
The sadistic abuse was discovered in late 2022 when Ingram took her daughter to the hospital after she suffered seizures, at which point doctors found more than 30 injuries across her body and called police.
The memo said the girl told officers she was often restrained with zip ties, chains, blindfolds, gags and duct tape and described being beaten with a belt.
The girl was placed in the care of her grandmother, and has been represented by a lawyer since she filed a $15 million lawsuit alleging that officials missed opportunities to end the ordeal.
Attorney Paul Galm said Human Services caseworkers had received reports that the girl had developmental delays, had been seen with ligature marks on her wrists, was exposed to drug abuse, was denied food and was often confined to the bathroom.
“These reports were ignored by DHS and never investigated,” Galm’s lawsuit alleged.
In response to The Oregonian, a DHS spokesperson said the state operates a 24-hour hotline for child abuse reports, but only those who meet legal criteria for investigation are assigned to a caseworker.
It is not clear whether the young woman’s case was assigned to a social worker, and there is no explanation as to why such reports of her ordeal would not meet “legal criteria.”