USA: parents of "house of horror" plead guilty

LOS ÁNGELES (AFP) .- The parents of
"House of Horror" in California will spend the rest of his life in jail after pleading guilty on Friday to 14 counts of indictment, including beatings and torture against 12 of their 13 children.

David Turpin, 57, and Louise Turpin, 50, were arrested in January 2018 as a result of a complaint from one of their daughters, who managed to escape and call the police.

The Riverside District Attorney's Office reported Friday that the Turpin were each charged with 14 counts of torture, kidnapping and child abuse against 12 of their 13 biological children, aged between 3 and 30 years.

The couple beat and strangled them, in addition to keeping them malnourished, allowing them to shower once a year and never take them to the doctor. The authorities considered that the minor had not been mistreated.

They pleaded guilty Friday before Judge Bernard Schwartz in Riverside County, and his sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 19.

County Attorney Michael Hestrin said that under the guilty plea they would be sentenced to "the maximum they can receive under the law of

California ",

which is life imprisonment, with the right to a parole hearing in 25 years.

"It's one of the worst cases of child abuse I've ever seen in my career as a prosecutor," Hestrin said at a news conference during of which he announced the decision of the accused.

Hestrin said his office was looking for this statement to prevent Turpin children from having to testify in court.

"We decided that the victims had endured enough torture and abuse, I personally met them and, of course, everyone is relieved to know that this case has been resolved," said the prosecutor.

"I was very captivated by his optimism, his hope for the future, they want to live and big smiles."

The 13 brothers are supported by County and Child Protection Departments.

Two years to escape

The family lived in a wealthy home in the town of Perris, Riverside County, southeast of Los Angeles.
The neighbors said that they had no idea what was going on there.

Jordan Turpin, then 17, escaped through a window and, with a cell phone turned off, he was able to call the emergency services. I had planned this operation for two years.

During the call, she said that her two younger sisters "had been chained to their bed" for breaking the house rules by taking sweets in the kitchen without permission.

"Sometimes my sisters wake up and start crying" because of the pain. "I'm calling to help my sisters," said the young woman who said she had an education equivalent to grade one and showed problems even to spell her last name.

When reading an envelope, he could not distinguish between the street number and the postal code of his residence.

Sheriff Manuel Campos, who responded to the emergency appeal, told the court in January that the girl, who looked a lot like a girl, had very dirty hair and skin and confessed that She was "scared to death". "

According to the prosecution, all the children were subjected to "prolonged abuses".

The prosecutor 's investigator, Wade Walsvick, said that one of the children, Joshua Turpin, had badured him that he and his brothers were locked in cages as a punishment, that' s only one of them. they had been hit in the face, pushed and dragged across the room.

It remains unclear why the Turpin couple, who left Texas for California in 2010, mistreated their children who, after being rescued, were hospitalized and placed in physical and psychological treatment.