Man tortured and starved girlfriend’s children because he ‘didn’t want them to have to poop’
A Houston man, Victor Prado, 45, has been sentenced to serve two life terms in prison for severely abusing two small children over the course of two years. His horrific acts included beating the children, restraining them with zip ties, and withholding food to prevent them from needing to use the bathroom.
Prado was convicted of these crimes, which took place in 2019 and 2020, after an investigation led by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. “Our children are our most valuable resource and our most vulnerable victims,” Ogg said in a statement. “This man intentionally tortured two little kids, and now, hopefully, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.”
Prado, who owned a moving company and worked in a commercial office building in southwest Houston, was dating a woman who had a three-year-old and a four-year-old. The mother and her children lived in the commercial building, which was not equipped for residential living as it lacked a kitchen and shower.
A witness, who had filed a complaint with child protective services earlier that month, reported seeing the couple leaving the office building at night without the children and hearing the children scream at night. The witness also saw the children looking starved and, when questioned, Prado allegedly replied that he withheld food because “it makes the children have to poop.”
In May 2020, child protective services removed the children from their mother's custody and took them to Texas Children’s Hospital. The four-year-old boy was found to be severely malnourished, weighing only 32 pounds and appearing skeletal. He had multiple broken bones, permanent brain-tissue loss, and ligature marks on his hands, wrists, ankles, and feet.
The three-year-old girl also suffered severe abuse, including broken ribs, severe intestinal injury, bed sores, and a broken pelvis. Doctors concluded that their injuries were classified as “child torture.”
Prado was convicted on two counts of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony. Assistant District Attorney Ashlea Sheridan, chief of the DA’s Juvenile Division, said, “At a time in their lives when they should have been shown love and affection, these two children were shown violence and fear – they’ve lost their innocence. They will have to live the rest of their lives with the effects of what this man did to them, and so should he.”
Prado’s two life sentences will run concurrently, and he must serve at least 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
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