Robert Pratt Kept Stepson Locked in Room as Sex Slave for Five Long Years

Robert J. Pratt's stepson came to live with him 10 year ago in Bennington, Vermont. It wasn't long before the boy he started to molest the boy, who's now 18. As the kid grew, Pratt began to worry that he might escape. So five years ago, he began locking him away in a room..  Pratt rigged the room with a homemade alarm system that would signal him whenever the door opened. The boy couldn't use the bathroom, so he was forced to pee out the window or down a hole where a telephone jack had been. But that wasn't the worst of it.  If the boy fought his sexual advances, Pratt would beat him, smashing his head into a wall or threatening to shoot him with a rifle. The kid was forced to wear long sleeves to school so teachers wouldn't see signs of the beatings. The boy was too afraid of Pratt to tell anyone of the abuse.  But that changed last year, when Pratt kicked him out of the house. The boy told his mother, then a counselor, and finally police. At the time, he as an estimated 70 pounds under the normal weight for his age because Pratt rarely offered him food. Detectives were able to corroborate the kid's tale. The hole where he peed still smelled of urine months after he'd been booted from the home.  Pratt was initially charged with everything from kidnapping to rape. But to save the boy from testifying, prosecutors agreed to allow Pratt to plea to one count of sexual assault on a child. Yesterday, he was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.