2 Teenagers accused of torturing disabled Ohio woman

from the New York Times

By BOB DRIEHAUS
Published: February 27, 2008

CINCINNATI — Two teenagers with long criminal records have been charged with torturing a young woman for at least six hours inside her home in rural southwestern Ohio.

The victim, Ashley Clark, 18, was found bound, gagged and bleeding on Friday by police officers and her mother, who had called 911 when she returned from work and found the house, in Hanover Township, ransacked.

Ashley Clark told the police she had been beaten throughout the day, sometimes with a baseball bat. The police also said her hair had been cut off. She had severe bruising on her hands, arms and face and was bleeding from her face and forehead, according to the police.

The abuse included dousing Ms. Clark in the shower and then forcing her to walk barefoot through snow. Her pleas to her assailants not to strike her in the head because she had had brain surgery went unheeded, she told the police.

“It was a horrible, horrific thing,” said her mother, Sheila Clark. “People just couldn’t imagine what they did to her.”

She added, “I have so many different emotions about this situation that I don’t know what to say.”

The young woman, whom the authorities described as disabled, was treated at Fort Hamilton Hospital and is recovering at home. “She’s doing as best as she can,” Mrs. Clark said. “She just doesn’t want to talk about it so that maybe it will go away.”

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