5 Rock Hill kids without food, water, cops say: Babysitter father of two charged

A Rock Hill father is charged with felony child neglect after five children, some as young as 2 years old, were found alone after having spent all day without food or water, police said.

Clifton Clincher Greene, 29, was charged Saturday with five counts of illegal conduct toward a child. The oldest of the children, 8, flagged down a police officer around 11 p.m. outside the Cherry Road home in a “visibly distraught” condition, officers said.

The children ranged in age from 2 to 8, police said. Greene is the father of two of the children, said Capt. Mark Bollinger of the Rock Hill Police Department.

Greene was left in charge of the five kids while the mother was at work, police said. Greene left the children unsupervised for at least 30 minutes and was not at the home when officers arrived, police said.

When police found the children the youngest had no diaper and the kids were walking in feces, officers said in an incident report.

Inside the home, police found no food or anything to drink. Beer bottles and tobacco products were within reach of the children, officers said.

The oldest child told responding officers the kids had not eaten since breakfast.

A woman who claimed to be a friend of Greene’s was parked behind the home when officers arrived, police said. The woman, who was not identified, told officers that she stopped by the home and saw there was no food for the kids, so she and another person went to a nearby Walmart for Lunchables, a bag of chips, and doughnuts.

When officers put the food in front of the kids, “The children immediately began tearing the packages open and eating,” according to the incident report.

Police were at the home when Greene returned back to the house after leaving them unsupervised and was taken into custody, according to the incident report.

South Carolina Department of Social Services agents were notified to take care of the children, officers said.

At the time of his arrest Saturday Greene was out on bond for March arrests for two counts of burglary and one charge of larceny, court records show.

Greene is being held on $100,000 bond on the child neglect charges at the York County jail.

This story was originally published August 13, 2018 at 2:19 PM with the headline "5 Rock Hill kids without food, water, cops say: Babysitter father of two charged."