Boy, 9, found dead sitting up surrounded by gallons of urine and deadly spiders

A dad has been jailed for more than a decade after policefound his nine-year-old son dead and sitting upright on the sofa surrounded by gallons of urine and deadly black widow spiders.

Joseph Antonsen, 39, was sentenced to 15 years in a state correctional facility plus 20 years of probation after he failed to call for help when the boy's heart stopped in July last year. Instead, he left his son's body to decompose at the rubbish-filled property in Picture Rocks, Arizona, before making a call to police. It comes after a girl, 3, was found dead on a popular Greece tourist beach by a horrified passer-by.

Antonsen's defense attorney told a courton Friday that his client was battling severe mental health and substance abuse issues, but the judge said the youngster's death was still entirely preventable, KVOA reports.

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"You knew you needed help and, for whatever reason - even with the resources around you from your parents, both emotional and financial - you were not able to correct your behaviour and the devastation that you were surrounding your child with," Pima County Superior Judge Kimberly Ortiz said, according to the station.

The dad previously pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse, including one count of child abuse where the abuser knew he might cause severe injury or death.

Antonsen had himself called 911 alerting them to the deceased nine-year-old boy, telling investigators his son had "become ill" two days prior. Officers arrived to find the house covered in filth, with no water, no functioning toilets and the child's decomposing body surrounded by soiled nappies, rubbish and jugs full of urine.

The house was also teeming with deadly Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders.

"Joseph also stated that he was going to take him to get medically checked and on that day he went out to turn on his vehicle and then went back inside the house to put a shirt on," a probable cause affidavit stated.

"He noticed that his son was 'shuttering and going limp,' he stated that after that, he could not find a pulse and stated he was not breathing." Instead of calling for help, the dad left the property, went to an unknown location and did not return until two days later, on July 14.

"When deputies entered the home they described it as being cluttered and also noticed piles of garbage around and near the couch where [the victim] was located along with lots of empty beer cans, large piles of soiled diapers, rotten foods, large amounts of one gallon bottles full of what appear to be urine, lots of insect activity, spiders like black widows and brown recluse were observed inside the home along with spiderwebs everywhere throughout all the walls of the home," the affidavit stated.

"It was also discovered that the home had no running water or working toilets. When Deputies located who was in the couch in a sitting position, they stated that he was in the process of decomposition."

A neighbour of the boy, who said used to play with her daughter, said: "His son was really cute. He was a really friendly kid. He was very polite. He was a lot friendlier than his dad."