A DAD who locked up his adopted son in a tiny box room without air conditioning and only a bucket for a toilet has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Tim Ferriter, 48, was found guilty of child abuse after detectives found video footage of the cruel punishment his 14-year-old son had to endure at their Florida home.
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Speaking in court for the first time, Ferriter begged the judge to "lean into mercy" before hearing his fate.
Dressed in a dark blue jumpsuit, he apologized to his family for everything they had to go through since he was charged and asked for their forgiveness, NBC affiliate WPTV reports.
Speaking to the judge, he said: "I ask that you allow me to serve my sentence outside the jail or prison, under house arrest or a monitor under probation so as to be able to support the ones I love."
Before the trial, Ferriter was offered a two-year plea deal, but his lawyers rejected it as he maintained his innocence.
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After he was found guilty, he could have served a maximum of 42 years for his crimes.
His lawyers admitted that their client made poor choices, but argued that his son's compulsive behavioral issues drove his actions
After sitting stone-faced through the entire trial, Ferriter broke down into tears at his son's victim impact statement during Thursday's sentencing.
The now 16-year-old boy, who remained anonymous throughout the trial shockingly asked the court to forgive his father.
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"My father was a good person who just made a really serious mistake," he said during the sentencing.
"I still love you and I will always love you until the end of my days."
The child asked Judge Howard Coates to sentence his father to six months of jail followed by five years of probation, but his request fell on deaf ears.
Judge Howard Coates had difficulty finding proof that Ferriter felt remorse for his actions, despite Ferriter's defense attorney asserting he had apologized to the entire family.
Defense attorney Prya Murad felt so strongly of her client's remorse that she asked the judge to impose a sentence below the lowest permissible punishment.
Before hitting him with five years, Coates said he had never heard Ferriter explicitly apologize for what he did.
"I heard him apologize and say he was sorry to his children for putting them in this position, but I don't think I heard one single time him say he was sorry for how he treated R.F. (his son)," Coates said.
"I mean, if he did, he must have glossed over it because I didn't receive it as such."
Ferriter's wife Tracey faces similar abuse charges, but the start date of her trial remains unclear.
HAUNTING FOOTAGE
In February 2022, Tim and his wife Tracy were arrested after a search for the then-missing boy revealed horrific signs of abuse.
The young teen wasn't allowed to have any control over the lights or air conditioning and had to use the bathroom in a bucket in the cramped space, prosecutors said.
Ferriter set up a Ring camera in the windowless room that captured moments of the dad screaming at his adopted son before deadbolting a door to the room.
In court, the teen, referred to as R.H., declared that the punishment was "dehumanizing" and "like genocide."
He admitted to having bad behavior, which included hacking school computers, stealing, and trying to give his four-year-old brother beer to see if it was bad for him.
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But prosecutors argued that this was no excuse for his harsh punishment.
Ferriter was found guilty of aggravated child abuse, false imprisonment, and child neglect in October.
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