Lillington, N.C. — A Cameron man whose ex-wife has been accused of abusing their children for more than a year has been indicted on child abuse and neglect charges, authorities said Monday.

A Harnett County grand jury indicted Brad Thill, 38, last week on three counts each of child abuse and child neglect.

Thill has said he was working in Afghanistan for a defense contractor and had no idea Leslie Tiesler was allegedly beating and starving three of their five children at their home on Calvary Church Road.

Investigators say Tiesler, 37, routinely locked three of their boys in a room and tool chest over a period of 14 months and denied them food, leaving them emaciated. She was arrested Oct. 16, charged with three counts of child abuse.

Tiesler has one biological son, and the couple adopted four boys in 2008. The couple divorced in March 2010, and Tiesler moved away with the children, according to Thill. They reconciled, and Thill allowed them to stay in the house on Calvary Church Road while he was deployed, he said.

Three of the adopted children, ages 13 and 14, told authorities they were starved, shot with a BB gun, beaten with a wooden spoon, locked in a room and forced into a Stanley tool chest for days with no food and only a pipe inserted through a hole for air.