[ad_1]
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) – A California couple pled guilty on Friday to torture and years of abuse, including chaining some of their 13 children to beds and starving them to the point where they stopped growing.
David and Louise Turpin will spend at least 25 years in jail after pleading in Riverside County Superior Court on 14 counts including cruelty to all, except their infant daughter, and imprisoning children in a house that seemed perfectly guarded outside, but infested with dirt and stank of human waste.
The couple was arrested in January 2018 after their 17-year-old daughter escaped home and called 911 in the town of Perris, about 96 km southeast of Los Angeles.
The children, aged 2 to 29 at the time, were severely underweight and had not been bathed for months. They described being beaten, starved and caged.
Louise Turpin's face turned red and she began to cry and dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief during the audience while her husband looked stoic.
The two men will be sentenced to life imprisonment on April 19, Riverside District Attorney Mike Hestrin said.
"The accused have ruined lives, so I think it's fair and equitable that the sentence is equivalent to first-degree murder," said Hestrin.
The Turpins had led a rather lonely but seemingly innocuous life until the teenager jumped out the window and called for help.
David Turpin, 57, worked as an engineer for Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Louise Turpin, 50, went bankrupt in 2011 as a housewife.
The family was living a night life, which kept them largely safe from the neighbors of a sub-division of the middle class.
In a recording of the 911 call, the girl who escaped said that two younger sisters and one brother were chained to beds and that she could not take it.
"They will wake up at night and start crying and they wanted me to call someone," she said in a shrill voice. "I wanted to call you so that you could help my sisters."
The police who responded discovered a house of horror.
Two girls were released in a hurry but a 22-year-old son remained chained. The brother told the police that he and his siblings were suspected of stealing food and being disrespectful.
The intervention marked a fresh start for children who lived in such isolation that the teenager who had called for help did not know her address.
Although the parents reported to the state that they had schooled their children at home, the oldest child was not completed until the third grade. Some children suffered from severe malnutrition, stunting and muscle loss, including an 11-year-old girl who had arms the size of an infant.
Children have been deprived of food and things that other children take for granted, such as toys and games, and do not have the right to do anything other than write in newspapers, said the authorities.
Children were rarely allowed to go out but went to Halloween and traveled with family to Disneyland and Las Vegas. They spent most of their time in their room, with the exception of limited meals or the use of the bathroom.
All children were hospitalized immediately after their discovery and did not speak in public. The Riverside County authorities then obtained temporary retention of adults.
The social service agency responsible for supervising the youngest children declined to comment on their cases.
Adult children live together, go to school and get healthy while living a life similar to that of their peers, "said Jack Osborn, a lawyer representing the seven adult children. He said that they attach importance to their privacy.
"They are relieved to be able to continue their lives without having the specter of a test hanging over their heads and all the stress it could have caused," said Osborn.
Guilty pleas may help children cope with the challenges, especially as many victims of abuse have doubts, said Jessica Borelli, clinical psychologist and professor at the University of California to Irvine.
"It's a pretty clear statement of how they've been abused," Borelli said. "If there is a part of them that needs validation, the way they were treated was a mistake and was an abuse, that is it."
Guilty pleas were important to prevent children from testifying, but they will be allowed to speak at the time of sentencing if they wish, said Hestrin, who was impressed by their resilience.
"I was very impressed by their optimism, by their hope for the future," Hestrin said. "They have a taste for life and huge smiles and I'm optimistic for them and I think that's what they think of their future."
—
Associated Press reporters John Antczak and Brian Melley in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
[ad_2]
Source link