New Durham boy was abused for years, say police

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Leader Correspondent NAMUOUnion CLYNTON
New Durham – A local mother and daughter are accused of forcing a child into a cold stream and a bank of snow naked, starved him and attack the mother for a period of several years.
Peggy Starr, 53, and her daughter, Christina Thomas, 31, are accused of abusing mother and her son, now 7, at their home in New Durham for years. The mother and Thomas were friends.
The situation became increasingly toxic over time, authorities say, leading the state division of youth, children and families to take the boy and the report of alleged abuse of police, who launched an investigation which resulted in several crime indictments delivered last week in Strafford County Superior Court.
“It seems as if there was a turning point in this report and has gone from support to allegedly unfair,” Strafford County Attorney Thomas Velardi said.
Thomas, of 214 Birch Hill Road, was indicted on charges of first-degree assault, accused of starving the boy from August 2006 until April 2010, as well as criminal threatening after she took a knife to the throat of the mother the boy in 2008.It ‘also charged with three counts of crime simple assault for allegedly struck the boy’s mother twice and pushing his face into a cake at times last April.
Starr, of 265 Kings Highway, was charged with second-degree assault after she had hit the boy’s thighs with a spatula so strong that it cut him in December 2009, according to an indictment. She was also charged with two misdemeanors counts of endangering the welfare of a child of two separate incidents last winter, where the boy would sit naked in a snow bank and placed naked in a stream.
“A lot of this stuff I’ve never seen in my 21 years in law enforcement,” Police Chief Shawn Bernier said.
Velardi said prosecutors will show that Thomas and Starr acted either alone or in tandem. He said that others were present during some of the incidents and some have cooperated with the authorities, while others do not.
“Some brave people have stepped forward to do what is right by this young victim,” he said, adding: “The possibility of additional charges remains.”
Velasquez said the boy’s mother will not be charged with any crime.
Bernier said that DCYF officials first notified the Durham police to a new problem in “autumn.”
Neither Thomas Starr, nor has any significant criminal history of the county of Strafford, even if Bernier said he was familiar with the local police.
Mother and daughter are scheduled to protest in Strafford County Superior Court on February 8.