The West Valley City couple is being held at the Salt Lake County jail.

(Rick Egan | Salt Lake Tribune file photo) Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, whose office has accused a West Valley City man and his girlfriend of child torture after prosecutors say they routinely starved the man’s 5-year-old daughter.

A West Valley City man and his girlfriend have been charged with child torture after prosecutors say they routinely starved the man’s 5-year-old daughter.

Daniel James Fivas, 32, and Jessica Marie Harmes, 44, each face one count of the first-degree felony, which can carry a sentence of five years to life in prison.

“Our children depend on us to care for them, as parents that is our responsibility,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement Monday about the case. “Those who do not fulfill this obligation will be held to account for it.”

According to charging documents, the girl’s father, Fivas, first took her to Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital on Aug. 30. There, he reported “she was not gaining weight and would eat her own feces.”

The girl was soon evaluated by the hospital’s Center for Safe and Healthy Families, which specializes in treating suspected victims of abuse and neglect. Doctors noted she had signs of chronic malnutrition, including a related, life-threatening heart condition called bradycardia, court documents state.

Her weight when admitted was also that of a 16-month-old toddler, doctors estimated. After 16 days of hospitalization, with consistent and scheduled meals, she gained 8.8 pounds, court documents state.

Five-year-olds, hospital staff told prosecutors, are “still dependent on caregivers to provide food, shelter, clothing, safety, nurturing and medical care.”

When deprived, the health care team added, children at that age “can attempt to ‘save’ themselves from things like starvation by scavenging food or eating non-food items.”

In time, they can also overcome revulsion to eating such items, doctors said. According to the documents, the girl at various times had eaten fecal matter, Play-Doh, moldy bread, melted wax and uncooked frozen foods.

The girl’s 13-year-old stepbrother told investigators his mother, Harmes, had the idea to put child locks on the refrigerator, freezer, pantry and garbage can to keep the girl from scouring them for food, court documents state.

Fivas told a West Valley City police detective after his arrest that he installed the child locks because the girl “liked to steal food.” He also disclosed that when he and Harmes learned Harmes was pregnant, he tried to give up custody of his daughter.

The girl had “rubbed him the wrong way,” he told investigators, and he “resented” her, court documents state.

Fivas and Harmes were both arrested last Tuesday and have been held in the Salt Lake County jail since.

A spokesperson with the Salt Lake County district attorney’s office could not say who currently has custody of the girl, her teen stepbrother or their infant half-sister, instead referring The Salt Lake Tribune to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. That agency did not immediately reply to a request for comment.