Teen was tortured in Broward home for a decade, police say. A sex offender lived there, too

A 15-year-old girl suffered close to a decade of horrors at a Margate home, police say. New court records reveal that a sex offender also lived in the same house.

Horace Crawley, 74, was arrested on Sunday and is now charged with failure to register as a sex offender. Days prior, Shankyria Latricia Clayton, the girl’s 20-year-old sister, was charged with aggravated child abuse and child neglect with great bodily harm in connection with the teen’s case.

As of Monday, Crawley’s charges don’t seem to be related to the alleged abuse, according to court records.

Latricia Elizabeth Crawley, 46, and Benjamin Deztuan Lockett, 43, were arrested in late October after Margate police responded to the home and found the 15-year-old girl’s head bleeding. Lockett, police say, punched the girl, causing her head to slam into the corner of a desk.

READ MORE: Broward teen suffered in house of horrors for years, police say. Guardians now charged

While being treated at a nearby hospital, police noticed “evidence of significant long-term trauma” on the girl’s body, according to a report. She had ligature marks, bruises, scar tissue, bite marks from insects and apparent signs of malnutrition.

The girl detailed to investigators the horror she suffered since 2014, when Crawley and Lockett became her guardians, according to the report. For almost 10 years, they frequently locked her in a closet, sometimes binding her with zip ties. They would force her to sleep there and relieve herself in a bucket.

Crawley, according to the teen, would often pour cold water on her to see her wake up. Both Crawley and Lockett, she said, starved her. Police even reported that the girl’s bones were protruding around her spine.

But police say she broke down when describing one of her gruesome punishments: when her eyes would be taped shut as her head would be dunked into water.

The alleged abuse didn’t stop there. Here’s what else the girl detailed to investigators:

▪ In 2019, when she was 11, Lockett kicked her in the chin, leaving her with a permanent scar that’s still visible today.

▪ In 2021, when she was 13, Crawley oiled her knees and forced her to kneel on rice for several days. She still has scar tissue on her knees.

▪ Again in 2021, Crawley tied the girl down and smashed her toes with a hammer.

▪ In 2022, when she was 14, the couple bound the girl with a nylon rope on multiple occasions, permanently disfiguring her shoulders, wrists and stomach.

▪ Again in 2022, Crawley poured a pot of boiling water over the girl, causing visible scars on her stomach.

The Florida Department of Child and Family Services now has custody of the girl.

To report child abuse or neglect in Florida, call the state’s 24/7 Abuse Hotline at 1-800-962-2873 or 1-800-96-ABUSE to talk with English, Spanish and Haitian Creole-speaking counselors. For TTY, people can use 711 or call to 1-800-955-8771.