CHARLESTON, WV – A Charleston grandmother is in police custody after she allegedly restrained her young granddaughter with handcuffs, causing the child to flee and seek assistance from a neighbor.
Laura Southworth, 54, has been charged with child neglect and unlawful restraint. According to a criminal complaint, police were summoned to a neighbor’s home around 9 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 23, after the child appeared with a handcuff on one of her arms. The child reported that she had been abused.
The complaint states that the child managed to remove the handcuff from her right wrist but was unable to do so from her left wrist. Southworth reportedly admitted to police that she had handcuffed the child the night before as a punishment for allegedly stealing food and attempting to leave the house without permission.
Southworth is accused of leaving the child handcuffed for around 13 hours. When police arrived, they found the handcuff was very tight on the child’s wrist but were eventually able to remove it.
Police noted the condition of Southworth’s home as extremely disordered, with items strewn across the floor. Southworth is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on October 2 and has not entered a plea. Efforts to reach her attorney for comment were unsuccessful.