Boy chained up with dead chicken around neck tells his story

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Handcuffed and shackled to a block of steel, the young boy would brace himself when he heard footsteps outside his bedroom door.

For years, he was whipped with belts, his face was burned with electrical wires and his fingers were broken with pliers — all to "teach him a lesson."

The abusers, who have since pleaded guilty, were his legal guardian — a supervisor with the Department of Social Services in Union County, North Carolina — and her longtime boyfriend, an emergency room nurse.

The abuse ended in November 2013 after police discovered the boy in handcuffs, chained to the front porch of the house with a dead chicken hung around his neck.

When police entered the roach-infested house "covered with urine and animal feces," they found something else: four other children, ages 7 to 14, who had been adopted by the couple over the years.

Harper, 58, was sentenced to up to 10 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty March 17 to maiming, intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury and assault with a deadly weapon.

[...] she was given credit for time served in jail after her arrest and was released April 9.

Wearing a green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt and blue gym shorts, he sat on a couch in his living room, patiently answering questions.

Barely 5 feet tall and slender, with brown hair and brown eyes, he looked younger than 13.

Court documents say he was put in foster care a decade ago after problems arose at the home of an aunt where he had been staying while his mother was moving from another state, and he ended up with Larson.

The boy says he was handcuffed and chained to a steel anvil in his locked room where he slept on the floor.