Children were chained to their beds with padlocks, locked up and mistreated for years.

Californian Horror House

A couple in California, who had imprisoned their 13 children for years in inhumane conditions, has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The ruling issued Friday by a court in Riverside, California, says that 57-year-old David Turpin and his 50-year-old wife, Louise, must serve at least 25 years in prison.

The couple pleaded guilty in February. Both admitted to torturing 12 of their 13 children. The police had ended the martyrdom of the siblings in January last year, then a 17 -year old daughter had fled through a window and had dialed the emergency call.

Some of the 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” – the term used in US media – in the small town of Perris east of Los Angeles for a long time mistreated. 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.

Since their liberation, the siblings are in the care of child care services. In the court hearings, some of them said that they still loved their parents.