MiddletownJournal.com

XENIA — Despite pleas from family members to keep him out of jail, the Paintersville man who admitted to using shock collars to discipline his children will spend 16 years in prison.

Greene County Common Pleas Court Judge J. Timothy Campbell said David O. Liskany had a Jekyll and Hyde-like personality that inflicted lifelong trauma on three of his four children.

"You have damaged your children for life," Campbell said. "You don't put shock collars on children."

Liskany pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious assault and one county of attempted felonious assault in October. He admitted to using the shock collar and scalding and frigid water to discipline the three oldest children.

"When you hear this it sounds like something from Guantanamo Bay not the Jamestown area," Campbell said. "The only thing you didn't do is wrap their faces in cheese cloth, but basically they were water boarded."

The abuse came to investigators' attention when Liskany's teenage son was reported missing last year during a snowstorm. The boy walked nearly 20 miles over two days to a relative's home where he knew he'd be safe, said Sheriff's Capt. Eric Spicer.

Spicer described the long period of abuse endured by the Liskany children as the worst he had seen in his career. "No doubt about it," he said after the sentencing. "This was a prolonged period of abuse that was systematic."

Liskany also had a past conviction in Warren County for burning his child's feet with hot water, according to police.

Family members and Liskany's wife Wendy, who has filed for divorce, begged Campbell for leniency.

"I don't feel incarcerating him is going to help him," his wife said. "He does not pose a threat to society, he did pose a threat to my children at one point in time."

Wendy added that she would have a hard time supporting her children without David working and that the oldest boys were abused while in foster care.

Judge Campbell and investigators said Wendy shared some of the blame. "I certainly think she has some culpability," Spicer said. "The evidence is clear, she knew what was going on."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2000 or flastname@DaytonDailyNews.com.