Appeals (1) from an order of the Family Court of Chemung County (Buckley, J.), entered December 12, 2000, which, inter alia, granted petitioner’s application, in a proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 10, to adjudicate respondent’s children to be abused and/or neglected, and (2) from an order of said court, entered January 26, 2001, which, inter alia, set the terms and conditions of visitation.
Respondent is the adoptive parent and biological grandparent of a boy, Joshua QQ. (born in 1992), and a girl, Tia QQ. (born in 1994) (hereinafter collectively referred to as the children). On appeal, respondent challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence adduced at a fact-finding hearing to support Family Court’s findings that (1) the children were abused by respondent’s conduct in subjecting Tia, who was less than 11 years old, to sexual contact by placing his fingers in her vagina for the purpose of gratifying his own sexual desire, acts constituting the crime of sexual abuse in the first degree, and (2) respondent neglected the children by using excessive corporal punishment. Because we conclude that Family Court’s findings of abuse and neglect are supported by legally sufficient evidence in the record, we affirm.
Initially, we are unpersuaded by the claim that the record
In this proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 10, petitioner bore the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that respondent abused and neglected the children (see, Family Ct Act § 1046 [b] [i]). Although a child’s uncorroborated statement is insufficient to support a factual finding of abuse or neglect, such a statement may be corroborated by any evidence tending to support its reliability (see, Family Ct Act § 1046 [a] [vi]), and a relatively low degree of corroborative evidence is sufficient in abuse proceedings (see, Matter of Karen BB.,
Turning briefly to the finding of neglect, although we agree
Respondent’s remaining contentions have been considered and found to be unavailing.
Crew III, Spain, Carpinello and Rose, JJ., concur. Ordered that the orders are affirmed, without costs.
