A horrific tale of abuse has emerged from Margate, Florida, with allegations that a counselor entrusted with protecting children actively worked to assist an abuser instead. Treaunshae Gibbons, 29, a family support counselor and former case manager for Kids in Distress, Inc., a nonprofit aimed at preventing child abuse, is accused of turning her back on a 15-year-old girl reportedly tortured for nearly a decade. According to detectives, cited by Local 10, Gibbons used her knowledge of the system to counsel one of the abusers on how to handle police procedures.
Arrested for her alleged complicity, Gibbons reportedly lived in the very house where the abuse took place before moving out in 2019. Despite continuing regular visits, she failed to take action to protect her young cousin from a harrowing living situation. Instead, as a witness described, she gave her abuser-mother advice during an investigation on a recorded phone call. The troubled teen, who had been confined within closets and subjected to violent attacks and malnutrition, sought help from an online instructor, igniting a police investigation.
In an ugly twist, members of the girl's family have been implicated in the abuse. The girl's legal guardians, Latricia Crawley, 46, and Benjamin Lockett, 43, were arrested in October on charges of child abuse and child neglect, along with the victim's sister, Shankyria Clayton, 20, who was charged with aggravated child abuse. According to NBC Miami, Clayton faced a judge who ordered her a $60,000 bond, staying away from the victim, the residence in question, and any minors.
The child's ordeal included being burned with boiling water, as indicated by the unredacted arrest warrant. Horace Crawley, 74, a registered sex offender and resident at the house, was also arrested on unrelated charges, though authorities have not dismissed the potential for additional charges. While Gibbons has been released on an $80,000 bond with the condition to wear a GPS monitor and avoid contact with minors outside of her children, the others bonded out with their own prohibitions as the investigation deepens.
The victim, now safe in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families, is the mere center of a case that reveals the disturbing potential for systems of support to be twisted into tools for abuse. In the cruel irony of a supposed counselor and family member shielding perpetrators rather than the victim, the case lays bare a betrayal that is most profound.
