Woman jailed for kidnapping, torturing

PHILADELPHIA • A Philadelphia woman has been jailed for 40 years for her role in kidnapping, torturing and enslaving disabled adults discovered chained up in a basement.

Jean Mcintosh, 38, was one of five people who kidnapped the adults and held them in cramped and dirty conditions so they could steal $200,000 of government benefits by forcing the victims to make them designated payees.

Philly.com reported that one of the earliest victims testified that she was forced to have children with another captive. The woman, 36, said Mcintosh and her mother, Linda Weston, the ringleader of the group, ripped the baby from her arms at the hospital and told her he had died. She found out later that McIntosh was saying the baby was hers and claiming benefits for the child.

The woman said during her 10 years in their custody she was beaten with bats, sticks and chains, shot with a BB gun, and held in a trailer where Weston brought “older mans” to have sex withher.

The woman told the courtthatshewasworking to build a relationship with her children, who found out in 2011 that she was their biological mother.

Another woman, 26, told how she was burned with heated spoons and turned into a child prostitute.

A man, aged 45, spent nearly a year chained by his left ankle to a basement boiler. “I thought I was going to die,” he said. “Every day, I was doing a lot of praying.”

The group shuttled the captives between several states to avoid being caught, and often locked them in basements, closets and other confined spaces, feeding them minimal food often spiked with sedatives.

Mcintosh, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to racketeering, kidnapping, fraud and hate crimes, held a tissue to her mouth as videos of some of the victims stories were played on video.

“I can’t take it back now,” she. “But I truly wish with mywholeheartthaticould. I participated in hurting you all. I am truly, truly sorry.”

Mcintosh helped prosecutors build a case against her mother. Weston previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison plus 80 years to avoid the death penalty.

“We made a deal with one devil to get another,” Assistantu.s.attorneyfaithe Moore Taylor said.

Jean Mcintosh