The 11-year-old girl was forced to lick animal feces. At other times, her tormentor doused her food with laxatives and then blocked all access to the bathroom, court testimony revealed.
Dennis Roger McClanahan, of Grundy, Va., wasn’t punishing his stepdaughter for any wrongdoings, a judge decided. Instead, McClanahan simply wanted to demean and humiliate the girl, sometimes even snapping photos of the abuse.
Buchanan County Circuit Judge Keary Williams on Tuesday chose to go above sentencing guidelines, more than doubling the two-year, three-month maximum imprisonment usually reserved for two counts of child abuse.
McClanahan, 49, will serve five years in prison, with another five years of probation when released.
He never offered a reason for the abuse or for the photographs, Commonwealth’s Attorney Tamara Neo said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Humiliation seemed to be the only motive.
“That was certainly the sense of it that we got from the investigation and from the victim,” Neo added.
The abuse happened in early 2007, court documents show, when the girl was 11. She is now 13.
Social workers learned of the girl’s treatment and sheriff’s deputies charged McClanahan in November 2007.
In June, McClanahan pleaded guilty to two child-abuse counts.
McClanahan has rotated through Buchanan County courts since 1999, records show. He paid $236 in fines for a misdemeanor conviction for assault and threatening bodily harm. Court records also show two dismissed misdemeanor assault cases and a dismissed case of threatening bodily harm.
He is currently serving a one-year jail term for a 2006 grand larceny, court records show.
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549
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