DALE COUNTY, Ala (WDHN) — An Ariton couple is behind bars after deputies claim they burned and abused three children.

According to the Dale County Sheriff’s Office, DCSO investigators and the Department of Human Resources were recently alerted to an abuse case involving three children under the age of 12 in Ariton.

Lt. Caroline Jackson said that during the investigation, they discovered that 27-year-old Ashleigh Ableman and her boyfriend, 53-year-old Howard Anderson, had allegedly burned Ableman’s three children with a blowtorch several times. Jackson said the burns were severe and that the children had signs of other kinds of abuse.

On Thursday, deputies with the Dale County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at a home in Ariton and arrested Ableman and Anderson. They are both charged with one count of torture/willful abuse of a child.

Anderson and Ableman are being held in the Dale County Jail without bond.