DALE COUNTY, Ala. (TCN) — A 54-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for abusing his girlfriend’s three young children, including burning them with a blowtorch.
WDHN-TV reports a Dale County judge sentenced Howard Anderson to three life terms in prison for aggravated child abuse and 60 years for chemical endangerment of a child following his conviction last month.
Anderson’s girlfriend and the children’s mother, Ashleigh Ableman, pleaded guilty in June and is serving five years in prison. According to WDHN, Ableman used a leather belt to beat her children and exposed the youngest one to methamphetamine.
The victims are all under age 12 and reportedly testified at Anderson’s trial about how they saw him as a father figure and even referred to him as “dad.” Anderson reportedly regularly choked, beat, and attempted to drown them. One such abuse involved using a blowtorch on them.
A good Samaritan reported the suspected abuse to law enforcement, which ultimately led to Anderson and Ableman’s arrests.
District Attorney Kirke Adams called Anderson a “monster,” saying, “I am so happy he is convicted and I can’t wait for him to be sent to prison.”
WTVY-TV reports Dale County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Caroline Jackson said following the sentencing, “To hear these children testify to the horrific beatings, chokings, burns, and drowning attempts at the hands of this monster is gut-wrenching. No child should ever have to experience what happened in this case. These children normalized so much of the horrific abuse that I truly believe we will never know the extent of what they went through. There is no punishment large enough for someone who abuses children.”
Sheriff Mason Bynum added, “These young children have been waiting for this day for a long time. They have lived in hell at the hands of Ashleigh Ableman and Howard Anderson. Not only did he subject them to physical abuse but subjected them to having to testify and look at him again in a courtroom. Now he will experience what I consider hell on earth in the Alabama Department of Corrections for the rest of his life.”