TikTok parents of seven children were sentenced to prison in Pennsylvania on August 20 after pleading guilty to treating their caged animals better than their malnourished children.
Shane Robertson, 48, and Crystal Robertson, 38, were told to go to state prison for the next eight to 16 years in the felony child endangerment and animal neglect case, a prosecution that had included allegations of assault, Bucks County District Attorney’s Office reports.
They are also told that they were not allowed to contact their children, aged between four and 16, until they turn 18 years old.
The case began in April 2023, when the Pennridge Regional Police Department received a report about two girls wandering outside their Green Top Trailer Park home in Sellersville entering an abandoned trailer, and taking items.
Once they arrived at the scene, authorities found that seven children, six girls and one boy, were living in filthy conditions surrounded by animals and their parents. It was later confirmed that the children were “clinically malnourished” and the majority of them were sick and lacked formal education.
“Over the next week, it was learned that none of the seven children had any formal education, and all lacked basic knowledge. Some of the children did not know their own birthdates. Four of the children suffer from speech impediments,” investigators said at the time.
“All of the children struggle with reading, writing, and spelling. They all exhibited social anxiety and disclosed that they did not like being in public or around other people.”
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Investigators also found “two dogs, two turtles, two rabbits, snakes, toads, and a four-foot reptile known as a Tegu inside the home, along with the approximately two dozen rats,” documents said.
In court, prosecutors emphasized that Crystal Robertson created a TikTok account for a Tegu named Boudin and that she fed the lizard “chunks of salmon” in videos as her kids were neglected.
Given the malnourishment of the children and the noticeable lack of food in the family’s locked up refrigerator, authorities asserted that the Robertsons treated their animals better than their children — and Common Pleas Judge Charissa J. Liller agreed, calling them “two of the worst parents I’ve ever seen in my life.”
The children remain in the custody of Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services and the animals were surrendered to the Bucks County SPCA.
Since being removed from the home, the children have shown signs of flourishing, the prosecutor told the judge. They are healthier, have made friends and have been going to school.
