California couple deny torturing their 13 children
RIVERSIDE: A California couple has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of torture as grisly details emerged of how they allegedly kept their 13 children in locked rooms or chains, allowing them to shower no more than once a year.
David Allen Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise Anna Turpin, 49 – who had registered their home as a school – were hit with 12 counts of torture, 12 of false imprisonment, six of child abuse and six of abuse of a dependent adult ahead of their court appearance in the city of Riverside yesterday.
David was also charged with committing a lewd act against a child by force or fear or duress, District Attorney Mike Hestrin said.
The court set bail at US$12mil (RM47.4mil) for each defendant.
“If convicted of all charges, they face 94 (years) up to life in prison,” Hestrin told reporters in Riverside.
Sheriff ’s deputies in Perris, a town southeast of Los Angeles, found that three of the captives had been shackled with chains and padlocks in their filthy, foul-smelling home last Sunday after receiving an emergency assistance call from their teenage sister, who escaped.
Hestrin said the 17-year-old had been working on a plan to escape for over two years and took one of her siblings with her, who became frightened and turned back.
The teenager was so emaciated that officers first thought she was a young child.
Officers also initially assumed all the other siblings to be children, but were shocked to discover seven ranging in age from 18 to 29.
All 13 are being treated for malnutrition and undergoing other diagnostic tests.
Hestrin said all the children had been subjected to “prolonged abuse”, were not allowed to shower more than once a year and were barred from seeing a dentist or doctor.
“Circumstantial evidence in the house suggests that the victims were often not released from their chains to go to the bathroom,” he told the press conference.
“If the children washed their hands above the wrist, they were accused of playing in the water and would be chained up,” Hestrin said.
When they were not chained up, they were locked in different rooms and were denied toys, “although there were many toys found in the house that were in their original package and had not been opened”.
While the children’s ordeal began when the family was living in Fort Worth, Texas, it “intensified over time and worsened” when they moved to California.
Neither parent was able to immediately explain why their children were restrained, said the Riverside County Sheriff ’s Department.
There was no indication that either suffered from mental illness or that the children’s ordeal was linked to the family’s religious beliefs, according to police. Louise’s sister Elizabeth Flores told ABC the couple kept to themselves, adding: “They were real private and didn’t come around much. We begged to Skype them. We begged to see them.”
As a university student, Flores lived with the Turpins for a while.
“I thought they were strict, but I didn’t see any abuse,” Flores said.
But she said she did have disturbing memories of the husband.
“If I got in the shower, he would come in and watch me. It was like a joke. He never touched me or anything.”