The Californian parents, who had imprisoned his 13 children for years in inhumane conditions, pleaded guilty. 56-year-old David Allen Turpin and his 50-year-old wife Louise Anna Turpin filed a formal guilty plea, prosecutors said in Riverside County on Friday. Specifically, they confessed, inter alia, to have tortured twelve of their children.

The police had ended the martyrdom of the 13 siblings in January 2018, after a then 17-year-old daughter had freed herself and dialed the emergency call. Some siblings between the ages of two and 29 were chained to their beds with padlocks. They were severely malnourished, so the police initially considered them all underage. It later turned out that seven of them were already adults.

According to the prosecution, the children in the horror house - so the term in US media - were abused for a long time. They were not allowed to shower more than once a year. Doctor visits were forbidden to them. Often they could not even go to the bathroom, because the parents would not want to take the shackles from them.

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California: Police release half-starved children chained to bed

The parents were "unable to provide a reason why their children were being held this way", the Los Angeles Times quoted a police spokesman after her arrest. The couple is said to have been guilty of $ 500,000 and have filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

The father is said to have registered a private school under the home address of the family, according to a report from the local KTLA. He himself registered as director of the "Sandcastle Day School". According to the school opened in March 2011, but recorded only six students, as evidenced by official documents.

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REUTERS / Riverside County Sheriff's Department

Neighbors told US media they did not know that children lived in the house. Others said the siblings looked like vampires, they were so pale.