The state Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that a Springfield man is guilty of felony child abuse for confining his 14-year-old son to a bathroom for days at a time and restricting his food.
Peter Hanson was convicted in 2011 but appealed the ruling, saying that he is a Seventh Day Adventist and that his religion encourages certain eating habits and the boy’s punishment didn’t constitute child abuse. The Supreme Court agreed with the lower court ruling, that his actions were cruel and unusual.
Hanson was sentenced in 2012 to three years in prison but a judge suspended that punishment and put him on five years’ probation and 100 days in jail.
The jury in the lower court was unable to agree on another against Hanson for similar treatment of his daughter, while finding him not guilty of three other charges.
Read the Supreme Court’s decision here
