ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512040046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
A teen-ager with cerebral palsy testified that her father kept her padlocked for a week in his cinder block tool shed with little food or drink.
Lanore Shearl, 16, sat in her wheelchair and told a judge that she slept in the 8-by-12-foot shed on ``a mattress with a thing underneath.''
The girl said she ate her food in the small building and went to the bathroom either in a bedpan in the shed or outside in the yard.
The girl testified in Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on Thursday against her father, Robert Preston Shearl, 50, who is charged with felony child endangerment in the April incident.
Lanore said she was given little food or water because her father was afraid she would have an accident. The girl said she was fed once a day and received limited amounts of water and Pepsi. During her stay in the shed from April 2 to April 8, she was not given a shower or bath, she said
Judge William Boice certified the case to a Circuit Court grand jury. Shearl and his attorney declined to comment after the hearing.
Lanore's mother, Darlene Hoy of Sandston, told reporters she was horrified to learn that her daughter had spent a week in the shed.
She said her daughter, of whom she has custody, was sent to live with her father for two weeks while Hoy looked for a new place to live.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB