KELSO, WA (KPTV) -
A Cowlitz County father accused of neglecting his adopted children took the stand to deny allegations he withheld food and assaulted the children.
Jeffrey Trebilcock and his wife, Rebecca, are being tried on criminal mistreatment charges.
He broke down into tears while describing the day he handed his adopted daughters over to Child Protective Services.
"I hugged 'em and I prayed with them," he said. "I told 'em I wouldn't let nothing happen to them. I felt like a failure now."
The state took custody of the girls during a child neglect investigation that began when his wife took their adopted son to a doctor in March 2011.
The boy, then 13, weighed 49 pounds at the time. Doctors have testified the boy was severely malnourished and had five rib fractures.
Last week, the children testified the Trebilcocks withheld food and put up alarms so they couldn't access it.
Jeffrey Trebilcock said food was always plentiful in the home and the children were always given food if they asked for more.
He described a motion sensor in the hallway and a makeshift alarm set up outside the boy's room as a baby gate with bells fastened to it, but said they were in place to notify him if the boy was leaving to wander around the house or outside.
"Before we used the gate, at nighttime, we caught him in our bedroom in the middle of the night while we were sleeping, just staring at us, like four times," said Jeffrey Trebilcock.
The most shocking testimony came from the boy, now 14, who said he would urinate in a cup because he wasn't allowed to leave his bedroom at night. The boy testified he was forced to drink his urine when his parents discovered it.
Jeffrey Trebilcock said that incident never happened.
The boy also said he ate dog and goat food because he was hungry.
Jeffrey Trebilcock testified the boy ate dog food by choice, sneaking pieces from a shelf in the laundry room.
"For some reason, (the boy) would surpass the human food and climb that shelf to get the dog food," he said.
When asked how the Trebilcocks knew the boy was stealing dog food, he said, "Because Rebecca, she was a genius, she put down flour you to know, to see the fingerprints and toe prints."
Rebecca Trebilcock is expected to testify Thursday morning.
Copyright KPTV 2012 (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
