The niece of a woman accused of keeping four mentally disabled adults locked in a filthy Philadelphia basement said Tuesday that her aunt had forced her into prostitution.
Testifying at a preliminary hearing, 20-year-old Beatrice Weston also recounted physical abuse and taunting at the hands of her aunt Linda Ann Weston and Weston's adult daughter, Jean McIntosh.
Beatrice told the court she was forced to have sex with men her aunt brought home when they lived in Texas. She said one of the four adults who authorities say were imprisoned by Weston in the basement also was forced into prostitution.
"She would make us do it at the same time," Beatrice said of McIntosh, adding that the money was given to Weston.
Authorities have said that Linda Ann Weston ran a brutal scheme to exploit the mentally infirm for money and government benefits, including Social Security disability payments.
Beatrice Weston said that McIntosh padlocked her in a closet inside an apartment that was above the basement where police found adults behind a chained door.
Weston; McIntosh; Weston's boyfriend Gregory Thomas; and Eddie Wright were arrested Oct. 15, the day a landlord said he stumbled upon Breeden, 29; Edwin Sanabria, 31; Drwin McLemire, 41, of North Carolina; and Herbert Knowles, 40, of Norfolk, Va., in a basement boiler room.
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Investigators maintain that Weston moved the group among Philadelphia; Killeen, Texas; West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Norfolk, Va., over the past decade. They often were one step ahead of stiffed landlords or the law, according to investigators in Philadelphia.
Each of the victims has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old, authorities have said.
Beatrice said that she was repeatedly locked inside for long periods of time, often with little to eat or drink, and did not know why Weston and McIntosh kept her there.
"I was inside there for a long time," Beatrice testified, adding that she could only tell if it was daytime because of light coming through the cracks around the door.
She said that McIntosh mocked her, saying things such as, "Don't you wish that you was out of that closet taking a hot shower like me?''
Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dugan is expected to decide Tuesday if there's enough evidence to send the case to trial. The charges include kidnapping, aggravated assault, custodial interference, theft by deception and neglect of a care-dependent person.
