At age 7, Robert Caravella and Carol Hann introduced their son to pornography. At age 8, his mother began raping him while his father watched. This became a regular occurrence. The sexual abuse came to light after the boy, then 13, was removed from his parents’ custody as a result of a County and Youth Services visit, which was prompted by a tip about the family’s squalid living conditions. The boy had been homeschooled through an online charter school, and was so sheltered from society that he did not know the sexual abuse was wrong or criminal until a horrified foster mother told him she did not expect him to have sex with her. Caravella and Hann denied all charges, and Hann described herself as “a good Christian woman.” The couple was convicted on all counts.

Date: June 2011
Location: Plymouth, Massachusetts