Couple charged after for keeping mentally disadvantaged child padlocked

EVENSVILLE, Tennessee (WDEF) – A Rhea County couple have been charged with child abuse after deputies found a five year old restrained.

It happened on Monday at a home on Strader Road near the Watts Bar Nuclear plant.

The department got a tip on the hotline about abuse of a five year old with mental issues.

When officers arrived, they heard a child inside the trailer yelling “Out.. Out” and “Hungary.. Hungary.”

His mother, Monica Hall, invited them inside.

They found the boy locked in a room with a padlock.

When they released him, he ran to the refrigerator.

The officer wrote “Ms. Hall put her head down and said she knew why I was there.”

He asked about a restraining device they used to hold the child down and says she showed it to them.

They describe it as a homemade harness that was bolted to the floor of the bedroom.

The boyfriend, Dennis Couch, was arrested on drug charges.