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Cantonment Woman Gets Five Years In ‘Heart-Wrenching’ Child Abuse Case
June 23, 2018
A Cantonment woman has been sentenced to five years in state prison for her part in the abuse of three children.
Rachel Linton was sentenced Friday in Escambia County; the five year sentence was the maximum allowed by law. Her husband, Jeffrey Scott Linton, was sentenced last year to 35 years in state prison for aggravated child abuse and multiple counts of child neglect.
Sheriff David Morgan called the case “heart-wrenching” and one of the worst he has ever seen.
The investigation began after the Department of Children and Families received an anonymous tip. That led to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office opening an investigation and executing a search warrant at the couple’s Cantonment home.
The allegations against the Lintons span the period August 2015 to May 23, 2016.
Nine children were removed from the home when the couple was arrested.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The remainder of this story details some of the severe physical child abuse allegations in this case. There are details that some readers will find disturbing.
The couple’s arrest reports indicated that one of the victims suffered a broken leg and then a broken arm caused by one of the siblings, and that Rachel Linton did not feed or bathe the children or take them to medical appointments. Two of the victims were born prematurely and are developmentally delayed.
DCF received a tip that Rachel Linton was planning to flee the area and has a history of fleeing when she is under investigation.
DCF received a report that two victims had injuries to their faces and heads, and Rachel Linton took the victims to West Florida Hospital where a trauma survey found that one victim had two broken arms and a broken leg and all three victims were malnourished.
The report says Rachel Linton frequently hit the victims’ heads on the walls and that Jeffrey Linton also abused them. Rachel Linton threatened the children with further punishment if they provided any information to DCF about the ongoing abuse in the home. Both allegedly told the children to blame their injuries on the other children in the home.
One child allegedly suffered a broken arm as the result of Jeffrey Linton twisting an arm. DCF discovered the children had multiple bruises on their faces, back and arms, and that the children had knots on the back and tops of their heads. They suffered a variety of other injuries, including an abscess on the bottom of a foot, scarring and scabbing of lips, scarring of a nose, lacerations to their ears and bruising to their genital areas.
A witness alleged that Jeffrey Linton would hold the victims upside down by their feet and hit their heads on the floor as punishment and that he would hit them with a paddle “2-3 feet long” and throw them and slam their heads against a wall, and he would allegedly hit them with a fly swatter.
The witness said the paddle was broken from use, and that she would hear the children cry and scream in pain.
Comments
18 Responses to “Cantonment Woman Gets Five Years In ‘Heart-Wrenching’ Child Abuse Case”
These children will have to deal with the abuse (emotional/mental & physical) for the rest of their lives… It never goes away… <3 for all of them…
I know first hand about these triplets that were abused. They were HORRIBLY abused. They are all developmentally delayed and for the mother to have allowed AND PARTICIPATED is just evil. There is no way that Rachel is a “victim”. She is and was just as guilty as Jeffrey. She slammed them against the wall, held them upside down and banged their heads in to the floor, spiral fractures on their legs, made them sit for hours in a car seat in the house and then pulled their arms behind the car seat until the arms broke. I do know that the children are in a very loving home now and all 3 are thriving. However, they have had to buy a bigger car to carry 3 car seats for the boys, and have already used up their retirement account to provide for these little boys. There should be a public out cry in 5 years if and when Rachel is released because she still feels entitled to get these little boys and continue to ruin their lives!
God when my time here in the flesh is done, please let me come back Angelic, to watch over and protect the little children that are unfortunately treated with such horrific abuse by anyone much less a parent..It sickens me. Oh and God if this could actually be possible for me, you may want to send me back without this quick trigger temper I was born with.As it would be no easy task for me to remain Angelic. As I think today I would certainly in the most hurtful way possible inflict 100 times more pain on them as they did to those little children.
Once again another DHR failed case
I’m just glad they caught them and their getting some kind of punisment. Thank you anonymous caller and God bless you and yours forever.
Maybe a little penitentiary justice will settle this case,since that the justice system failed these kids!!!
I was setting in court The State Attorney stated her child that called in against her mother and stepfather, who testify against the stepfather would not testify against her mother because she was told she could not come home again if she did testify about what her mother had done to all the kids.. So they pulled part of the testimony so she did not get what she would.. She is awful. We called the law to them but nothing was done for months DCF would be at that house but did not take the kids out of that house until the kids were hurt.. That mother would be gone for days at a time. But the people that is suppose to help kids dropped the ball. They should have taken the kids months before they did
Eye for an eye should be used in this case they need to feel what the kids felt.
5 years not enough. ..
Thank you to the anonymous caller that reported this and stopped this terrible abuse to continue. Everyone that knows about child abuse should step up and report it to save the children in this world. Physical abuse will heal but the mental abuse lasts a lifetime. I pray these children are in a safe and loving environment now.
thats just not fair.she let him abuse her children and watched it.i hope her kids remember what she done to them.she should have got as much as he did.well he want be riding around on his harley anymore pretending he was a good person.breaks my heart for those poor babies.i know they got to be happy now.never in a million years would i thought jeff would have been that way.i was so shocked that he could possible do such a thing.as for as her a low life mother to stand by and let a man beat her kids.
I don’t understand where she gets a fraction of time compared to him.
I hope he is abused daily fir 35 years. Maybe he’ll get dropped on his head every day! Her too
Oh Lord, how can these two Beasts do that to children?
Hope this is a case where once in prison the other inmates “take care of them”.
Prayers for the children and for those who are helping them.
Sad story and these two Linton animals need to be removed from any opportunity to do further harm.
5 years is not nearly long enough.
Hopefully “Big Bubba” and “Big Bertha” will take care of these lowlife scum…most prisoners do still have morals when it comes to child abusers…
Rachel and Jeffrey Linton are the worse of mankind. I hope all the children will be placed in loving homes.
They both should be held equally responsible 99+ years for each.