Emotional 14-year-old girl is comforted by a therapy dog in court as she's questioned by the father and son who 'chained her up in a basement and sexually assaulted her'
- Timothy Ciboro, 53, and his son, Esten, 28, are accused of chaining Timothy's 13-year-old stepdaughter in the basement on and off for a year
- The girl said managed to escape in May when she took a spare key to the basement and ran off while they were out
- The pair are acting as their own attorneys and questioned the girl in court
- 'Normal fathers wouldn't do sexual stuff to their kids,' the teen told Timothy when he insisted on calling himself her 'dad'
A 14-year-old girl who says she escaped a basement where she was chained and handcuffed by two relatives who touched her sexually confronted the two men in court Tuesday.
The girl, who had a golden retriever comfort dog named Anna next to her on the witness stand, testified that she often was held in the basement as punishment by stepfather Timothy Ciboro, 53, and his 28-year-old son, Esten Ciboro.
The teen managed to unshackle herself and escape while the pair were out in May 2016. She said she was held in the basement on and off for a year and sexually abused from 2012, when her mother left and didn't return, to 2015. Timothy also faces rape charges involving another girl, reported WTOL.
The then-13-year-old girl was allegedly chained in the basement of the Ciboros house, above. Police found metal shackles and a bucket where the girl would have to go to the bathroom
Both have pleaded not guilty to charges including rape, kidnapping and child endangering. The pair say they will use Bible scripture and 'God's holy word' to defend themselves.
'There’s a great deal of strategy in Scripture and I use those strategies in everything I do,' Esten Ciboro told the judge, according to the Toledo Blade. They say they plan to cite the Bible in their defense.
Nancy Borders, of Toledo, Ohio, left, a dog handler, sits with Anna, a trained Lutheran Church Charities Comfort dog at Trinity Lutheran Church and School in Toledo, Ohio Tuesday. She is there for the girl on the stand, not seen, at right
Stand-by counsel John Thebes, right, advises defendants Timothy Ciboro, left, and his son, Esten Ciboro,seated, with the proper way to ask questions of a witness. The pair are defending themselves
The two men are serving as their own attorneys, and questioned the girl after she described being shackled by the ankle to a support beam in the darkened room for different lengths of time.
At one point during her testimony, she told Timothy Ciboro to stop referring to himself as her dad. 'You didn't treat me like a dad,' she said to Ciboro, who is not her biological father.
The pair are defending themselves with Bible scripture and cross-examining the alleged victim on the stand
Accused: Timothy Ciboro (left), 53, is accused of sexually abusing and imprisoning his 13-year-old stepdaughter. His son, Esten Ciboro (right) faces the same charges
'You think I like punishing you?' Ciboro responded.
'I would say the sexual touching you enjoyed,' answered the girl, who occasionally paused to pet or smile at the comfort dog, who is two years old.
Anna is a veteran comfort dog who has helped flood victims, school children, and visited hospitals and nursing homes, reported WTOL.
Prosecutors said the girl suffered both physical and mental abuse before she used a spare key to escape last summer when she was 13 years old.
Timothy Ciboro (right) also faces a second charge of raping a child. He also denies that claim
Officers found leg irons in the basement along with a bucket the girl said she used as a toilet, according to a police report.
The girl's mother was living in Las Vegas at the time. The girl and two other children were living with the two men.
The girl testified that she was treated more harshly than the other two.
Her punishment for wetting the bed worsened from being spanked, to being locked in a bathroom, to being chained in the basement, she said.
Prison: The girl said she was imprisoned in the basement of this home, where she said she was sexually abused, as well as being locked in a basement and made to eat spoiled food
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She also said she first told police that she had not been sexually abused and only mentioned it several months later.
The father and son tried to point out that they had provided her with a home, clothes and food.
'Did your dad act like I loved you?' Timothy Ciboro said to her.
'Sometimes it seemed like that,' she said. 'Normal fathers wouldn't do sexual stuff to their kids.'
Timothy Ciboro was a firefighter until 2004, the Toledo Blade reported, but Fire Chief Luis Santiago remembered him as 'not being a very good employee.'
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