Ohio police: Girl was locked in bathroom for years

[February 10, 2011]  DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Police say an Ohio couple kept a 9-year-old girl in a barricaded bathroom for years when she wasn't in school.

Officials in Montgomery County say 50-year-old Brian G. Hart and 49-year-old Rivae Hart were legal guardians of the girl, Rivae Hart's granddaughter.

Dayton police say that since age 3, the girl mostly stayed in a bathroom blocked by dressers, sleeping on a cot. The couple blamed behavioral problems, but authorities say the girl's development is normal.

The Harts are both charged with kidnapping and child endangering and were being held Wednesday in the county Jail under $50,000 bonds. No attorney was listed for them.

Police tell the Dayton Daily News that the girl, her brother and Brian Hart's two sons are now in foster care.

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Information from: Dayton Daily News, http://www.daytondailynews.com/

[Associated Press]

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