The Connecticut woman who allegedly tortured her emaciated stepson and held him captive for decades is blaming his late dad for the unspeakable abuse — while her lawyer claims the victim could have left any time.
Ioannis Kaloidis, the lawyer for alleged evil stepmother Kimberly Sullivan, denied to The Post on Friday that the stepson was locked in anywhere, noting to People magazine he left the home daily while doing chores such as taking out the trash.
“He could have just walked away then if he wanted to leave,” the lawyer told People of the victim — who some longtime authorities have said suffered the worst case of abuse they’d seen in their careers.
Sullivan, 56, said through her lawyer that choices about how her now-32-year old stepson was raised were in the hands of his father, Kregg Sullivan — even though the victim said his years of horrific abuse only got worse after his dad died last year.
“This is weighing heavily on [Kimberly],” Kaloidis told The Post.
“The father dictated how the child would be raised.
“There’s talk in the press that Kimberly removed him from school, that she ran interference with [the state Department of Children and Families, that she did this, she did that,” he said. “They want a lynching, and that’s simply not going to happen.
“The father decided whether this kid went to school,” the lawyer said. “The father decided where this kid went. It was his son. It was not her son.”
But the stepson — who allegedly suffered the stomach-churning abuse beginning at age 11 — told cops his father actually let him out of a tiny locked room when Sullivan and her daughters weren’t home, according to a warrant cited by the outlet.
The victim weighed just 68 pounds when he was rescued last month from a fire, which he started at the family’s Waterbury home in a desperate bid to escape the abuse, he told police.
During years of hellish torment, he was locked in 9-by-8-foot storage space and starved — and sometimes had to drink from a toilet and eat from a garbage can to survive, according to court documents.
But Kaloidis contended to The Post that there were “no locks on doors or anyone being prevented from leaving” the home, saying, “we don’t concede living conditions” cited in the warrant.
“We’re talking about someone who is 31 years old. [Kimberly] can’t dictate whether he goes to a doctor or showers or anything like that,” the lawyer said.
He addressed the victim’s allegation that he wasn’t allowed to shower for two years and suffered severe tooth decay, too.
“My client encouraged him to bathe, but she is not going to force a 32-year-old man to take care of himself,” Kaloidis told People.
The victim told investigators that after his father died last year, his captivity grew more restrictive and that he was locked in his room 22 to 24 hours per day.
Threats of longer lockdowns or withholding food prevented him from telling anyone how he was forced to live, he told police.
The tortured man now appears to be recovering, Waterbury police Detective Steven Bronwell told the Stamford Advocate on Friday.
“We thought we had seen the worst of humanity until we saw this,” Brownell said.
“In speaking with him, his spirit is tremendous,” the veteran cop said of the victim.
“He’s got a great smile. He’s got a great sense of humor, and he’s very aware what’s going on, and he’s just looking for help at this point.
“One of the first things he said to [a detective] was he wanted to thank the fire department for everything [they] did for him for pulling him out of there and for saving his life,” Brownell said.
Meanwhile, Kimberly’s lawyer said he did not know who posted the stepmom’s $300,000 bail, freeing her.
“I’m assuming family,” he told The Post, adding he doesn’t know where she is.
