‘House of horrors’: California parents of 13 children plead guilty to torture

Riverside (USA), February 23

A California couple who shackled some of their 13 children to beds and starved them have pleaded guilty to torture and other abuse.

David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty on Friday in Riverside County Superior Court in the case dubbed a “house of horrors.”               

The couple was arrested in January 2018 when their 17-year-old daughter called 911 after escaping from the family’s home in the city of Perris, southeast of Los Angeles.

The children, who ranged in age from 2 to 29 at the time, were severely underweight and hadn’t bathed for months and the house reeked of human waste.

Investigators said some of the children had stunted growth and wasted muscles and described being beaten, starved and put in cages.

A Southern California district attorney will address the case of a couple charged with the torture and abuse of most of their 13 children. — AP