TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Gadsen County man accused of prostituting a child in exchange for drugs for 13 years made his first court appearance Tuesday.
Authorities say Kevin Wyatt and his girlfriend Celeste Chambers prostituted a child in exchange for drugs in both Leon and Gadsden counties.
According to court documents, the child was subjected to sexual abuse from 2003 to march 2016 and was only three years old when the abuse started.
Mike Watkins, an expert at Big Bend Community-based Care, says that while extreme cases like this are not common abuse like this is often hard for people outside the family to spot.
"Burns, bruises, malnutrition," Watkins said, "Those things are very hard to hide. When it comes to things like sexual abuse or emotional abuse, often time the young person is carrying that on the inside.
"Try to have interaction with the child, 'How was your day?' Those kinds of questions that are open-ended to try to get the young person to talk about their experience."
Watkins says if a child or adult comes to you with concerns about abuse, call the Florida Abuse Hotline at 1-800-96-abuse.
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