MUG SHOTS Virginia couple plead guilty in drywall child abuse case

When Christina Dawn Moore, 27, and John Michael Robey, 34, “needed a break” from their three young daughters they decided they would barricade them in a room by nailing up a large sheet of drywall in the doorway.

Their oldest daughter, 4, was smart enough to use a mattress to climb over the five-and-a-half feet tall sheet. Once she was free of the room she went next door and informed a neighbor that, “her sisters needed help and her mom and dad were asleep,” according to Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Kristina Robinson.

Christina Dawn Moore

The neighbor escorted the young girl back home and called out for her parents but received no reply. As she tried to locate Moore and Robey she could hear the screams of the 4-year-old’s younger sisters, ages 1 and 2, so she did the right thing and removed the wall and freed the scared children. If not for this neighbor, things could have ended up much, much worse.

She found the girls only wearing diapers and covered in feces so she bathed and dressed them at their home then took all 3 girls back to her house and called the police. When the cops arrived and searched the home they found smoking devices, needles and several prescription bottles in the parents’ bedroom. Initially Moore and Robey believed they had done nothing wrong and that their children hadn’t been trapped in the room for very long. The mother stated that they:

“…just needed a break and the drywall was put up so the children would be safe.”

John Michael Robey

The two face sentencing on Jan. 12. Sadly for Moore, this isn’t her first parent fail as she was previously arrested when her 22-month-old twin boys from a previous relationship were found wandering in diapers near a county landfill. She lost custody and the boys now live with their father. And the punishment for that conviction of felony child neglect? Probation.

Give me a break.

Mug Shots: Prince William County police