Warning: Includes mentions of rape, child abuse.
A father and son accused of keeping a 13-year-old girl shackled in their basement and repeatedly raping her from 2012 to 2015 said they will rely on “the only law book that truly matters” when they defend themselves at trial: the Bible.
“There’s a great deal of strategy in Scripture and I use those strategies in everything I do,” Esten Ciboro, who is charged with multiple counts of rape, endangering children, and kidnapping with his father, Timothy, told the judge. “It’s a vital part of everything I do.”
According to the Toledo Blade, they will act as their own attorneys and intend to “use God’s holy word to ask questions, questions that we believe are absolutely vital to our case,” said Timothy, who is also the teen girl’s stepfather and faces rape charges involving another child.
The trial is scheduled to start this week. While they will be allowed to cite scripture, the judge said the Ciboro men won’t be able to use the Bible to question witnesses.
H/T Washington Post