Dad treated young son, daughter as ‘his television’ for porn, Minnesota cops say

A father’s alleged sexual and physical assaults of his young children has been uncovered more than a decade later, Minnesota authorities say.

The children of the now-37-year-old man recently came forward and said they were victims of extensive abuse by their father when they were 4 and 5 years old, according to a statement of probable cause filed in St. Louis County.

The father was charged June 16 with five counts of criminal sex conduct, about 11 years after the alleged incidents began in Duluth, court records show. McClatchy News is not naming the man to protect the identity of his children.

His son, who is now 16, said he watched his younger sister, now 15, be molested by their father, authorities said. The boy said he was also touched by his father “more than once,” including one time when his father “would hit him with a hanger on the thighs and butt” if he did not comply.

The daughter, who along with her brother was removed from the home in 2014, said her dad left bruises on her body that her mother later covered up using makeup, according to the statement of probable cause.

He is accused of sexually abusing his daughter twice a day for a year, court records show. The abuse happened when the children’s mother was not home, and the father would put a dresser in front of his bedroom door so his daughter couldn’t leave, authorities said.

“(The daughter) said she would try to fight (her father) off, but eventually stopped trying to do this because she was not big enough to get away,” according to prosecutors.

Court records state the children were also forced to engage in sexual activity with one another.

“(The son) said that (his dad) would explain what he wanted them to do with each other... and that he would use (his children) as ‘his television’ for pornography,” authorities say.

Prosecutors said the brother “never felt safe” talking about the encounters because his dad would hit him and his sister.

“What happens in this house stays in this house,” the father told his son, according to court records.

According to the Duluth News Tribune, the man was investigated in 2015, but the case was closed because one of his children “didn’t want to talk about it anymore and was worried about talking about it.”

Now, the father has been jailed on a $150,000 bond without conditions, or $50,000 with conditions, the Duluth News Tribune reported.

Duluth is about a 155-mile drive northeast from Minneapolis.