Couple held amid claims they locked son, 7, in coffin

POLICE have arrested a couple accused of punishing their seven-year-old son by forcing him to wear a nappy and locking him in a coffin in the basement of their northeastern Pennsylvania home.

Neighbours called police after they heard the boy crying from inside the house in Scranton, said police Detective Captain Al Leoncini.

Police found the boy sitting in a doorway of the bug-infested basement, upset and wearing a nappy, he said. The boy told police he was crying because he was hungry.