THE 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL WHO ALERTED POLICE THAT SHE AND 12 SIBLINGS HAD BEEN HELD CAPTIVE FOR YEARS PLOTTED HER ESCAPE FOR TWO YEARS FROM THEIR ‘HOUSE OF HORRORS,’ A PROSECUTOR SAID THURSDAY.

RIVERSIDE, CALIF. • The 17-year-old girl who raised the alarm about a “House of Horrors” where she and her 12 siblings had been locked up for years had plotted her escape for two years.

Prosecutors detailing the case against David and Louise Turpin, who appeared before a judge in Riverside Thursday, said the house in Perris contained hundreds of journals kept by the children, which they say will be crucial in building a case against the parents.

Turpin, 57, and his wife, 49, were charged with 12 counts of torture and 12 counts of false imprisonment. Their youngest child, aged two, did not have sufficient injuries to warrant the same charges, prosecutors said.

“Right now, we are charging one count of a lewd act,” said Michael Hestrin, Riverside County district attorney. “The charge is a lewd act on a child under 14. We are alleging that Mr. Turpin touched one of the children in a lewd way.”

The couple also face seven counts of abuse of a dependent adult and six counts of child abuse.

“This is severe emotional and physical abuse,” said Hestrin, adding that the charges dated back to 2010. “This is depraved conduct.”

The horrific scene was discovered on Sunday when the 17-year-old girl escaped by climbing out a window of the house and calling police from a mobile phone.

“The 17-year-old had been working on a plan with her sibling to escape the abuse for more than two years,” said Hestrin. “She took her sibling with her through the window, but that sibling became frightened and went back.”

Hestrin alleged that the children were nocturnal — going to sleep around 5 a.m. and sleeping all day and then staying awake all night. Their parents would allegedly only let them shower once a year.

Hestrin claimed the Turpins would lock up their children for weeks on end as a “form of punishment,” and left them severely malnourished after feeding them just once a day.

“As a punishment starting many years ago, they began to be tied up, first with ropes,” alleged Hestrin. "One victim was tied up and hog-tied. When that victim was able to escape the ropes, the defendants started using chains and padlocks.

“These punishments would last for weeks or even months,” he said. “The victims were often not released from their chains to go to the bathroom.”

Hestrin said all 13 of the children were admitted to hospital with “severe calorie malnutrition connected with muscle wasting.” The oldest, a 29-year-old woman, weighed just 70 pounds when rescued. Doctors said some of the children were suffering from cognitive neuropathy, meaning their mental age was much lower than their real age.

Hestrin claimed the children were also subject to “frequent beatings and even strangulation” as punishment for washing.