Police: Boy forced to sleep in dog crate

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn., March 9 (UPI) -- A Connecticut woman made her adopted son sleep in a dog crate because he was fouling his bed, police say.

Kathlyn Anthony, 54, of Old Saybrook was charged Sunday with risk of injury to a minor, The Day newspaper of New London, Conn., reported.

She was freed on $100,000 bail at her arraignment in Middlesex County Superior Court Monday, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported.

Sgt. Kevin Roche said police were tipped off by a school employee in December after Anthony's daughter told her school about her brother's "sleep locker."

The plastic crate, which the family had previously used for its cats, has a metal door and measures 36 by 22 inches and is 30 inches high, he said.

"The mother was having some issues with the child defecating in the juvenile's bed or within his bedroom," Roche said.

Citing the arrest warrant application, the Courant reported the state Department of Children and Families investigated allegations of abuse by Anthony in 2007 but took no action.

The boy was reportedly born in 2004. Anthony took him in as a foster child when he was 2, and adopted him a year later, the newspaper said. He is now in state custody.