A Lakeland couple is behind bars after investigators said they abused two children in their care.

Sean Pearson, 33, and his 21-year-old girlfriend, Jessica Rowland, are each facing six counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of false imprisonment.

The victims are an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, deputies said.

According to the arrest affidavit, the investigation began after a deputy was called to a home on Lazy Lake Drive E. The deputy spoke to the 12-year-old girl, who said the suspects had locked her in a closet, shaved her head and used forms of "discipline" that left bruises on her.

Detectives said the couple agreed to be interviewed, and that both suspects said the following:

  • The suspects covered the girl's mouth with their hands when she screamed because it "hurt their eardrums."
  • The suspects gave the girl Pearson's prescription Depakote several times to "calm her down" because she "gets out of control. They said they did this knowing it was illegal, and they would watch her in case she passed out or stopped breathing.
  • Detectives said the suspects told them that if she refused to take the pills, they forced them down her throat.
  • Pearson said he learned about forms of child discipline from reading books and "the military."
  • Pearson said he disciplined both children by making them sit on a can of vegetables until their buttocks became numb.
  • Pearson locked the children in a closet when they cried or became unruly.
  • Pearson tied the girl's wrists together, then tied the cloth to a beam above her head as a form of discipline.
  • Pearson and Rowland encouraged the children to physically fight each other, and laughed at them and made fun of them when they refused.

The children were also interviewed during the investigation. They are now in the custody of the Department of Children and Families. Officials did not release their relationship to Pearson and Rowland.

The couple's neighbors said they've heard the childrens' screams.

"It wasn’t like a regular scream from kids screaming when you hit them. It was screaming like, help!” said neighbor Kimberly Franqui.

Randi Evans said she's called deputies on the couple before.

“You hear the screaming and all that all the time. But the next thing I noticed the little boy was standing out in the yard right at the corner butt naked and the adult woman was hosing him down with a pressure washer,” Evans said.

Pearson and Rowland have been booked into the the Polk County Jail, where they are being held without bond until their first appearance.

"I can’t imagine for the life of me and neither can the people in this community or any community, children exposed to that environment for a second,” said Sheriff Grady Judd, “much less day in and day out.”

Deputies said Pearson has a prior arrest from 2005 on a charge of sexual battery on a victim under the age of 12 and child abuse. That charge was later downgraded to child abuse, and he was sentenced to probation.