[ad_1]
David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty to 14 counts of torture, adult abuse, endangering children, unlawful imprisonment and more. They face 25 years in prison for life, the Riverside District Attorney's Office announced.
We saw Louise Turpin wiping tears as the judge read the charges.
The couple was arrested in January 2018 after police found their 13 children – including seven adults – detained in a filthy house in Perris.
Some of the siblings, aged 2 to 29, were chained to beds with chains and padlocks.
The appalling living conditions led one of them, a 17 year old girl, to run out through a window before calling the police on a disabled cell phone that She had found in the house. She had planned her escape for more than two years.
"This is one of the worst and most serious child abuse cases I have ever seen," District Attorney Mike Hestrin said. He believed that the pleas would result in life sentences. If the case had been tried, Hestrin said, some of the victims would have been called to testify.
David Macher, David Turpin's lawyer, declined to comment until sentencing.
Louise Turpin's lawyer did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment.
The children were tied up and hungry
Children have often been tied up for "weeks or months at a time," Hestrin told reporters.
Victims had informed investigators that the practice had been originally punished. They would be tied with ropes, but when a victim who was hogtied escaped, the Turpins turned to chains and padlocks, Hestrin said.
The children were also kept isolated and denied showers, medical care and food. None of them had seen a doctor for over four years and none of them had ever been to the dentist.
Because of their isolation, Hestrin stated that the children "lacked a basic knowledge of life".
Adult children consider themselves survivors
Corona Regional Medical Center CEO Mark Uffer, who played music with adult children during their two months there, said that parents' guilty pleas were a "blessing" for the children.
"They will not be forced to appear on the witness stand and be dissected by a defense lawyer, why are they subject to further torture?"
Uffer said he had not seen the kids since they left the center last year, but a Turpin adult children's lawyer, Jack Osborn, told CNN: "Our customers are relieved that there is no trial and they are happy that the district attorney was able to get this result ".
Adult children are "very good," Osborn said.
"They live together, have been educated and have continued their lives, they are all extremely bright, incredibly strong and resilient, and they have supported each other."
He added, "They consider themselves survivors."
[ad_2]
Source link