Parents barred from contacting ‘shackled’ 13 kids

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The parents accused of torturing 12 of their children and keeping them chained to beds for months and so malnourished their growth was stunted will appear in court today as prosecutors ask a judge to bar them from contacting their kids.

The court proceeding is the latest step as authorities seek to sever ties between David and Louise Turpin and their 13 children — between two and 29 years old — who were rescued from their home in Perris, California, on Jan. 14. They have pleaded not guilty to torture, abuse and other charges.

Riverside County prosecutors are seeking a protective order that would prohibit the Turpins from having any contact with their children, district attorney’s office spokesman John Hall said.

The case gained attention from around the world and about 20 people from across the US, including nurses and psychologists, have offered to take the seven adult children and six minors and keep them together.

The Riverside University Health System Foundation, which is collecting money for the siblings, so far has received 1,500 donations totaling $120,000, spokeswoman Kim Trone said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested the husband and wife after their 17-year-old daughter climbed out a window and called 911. Authorities found the siblings in the family’s filthy California home, three of whom were shackled to beds.

Neighbors and relatives said they were unaware of the children’s treatment until authorities arrested the parents.

In a heart-wrenching Facebook post, a former classmate of the oldest Turpin sibling recalled that she was picked on as a grade school student in Texas.

Taha Muntajibuddin, who attended kindergarten through third grade with her in Fort Worth, described her as “a frail girl and often wore the same purple outfit.”

After learning of the case, he shared on Facebook his “overwhelming sense of guilt” over how she was treated.

He wrote that it was jarring to learn that the girl, who was teased in school for being smelly, “quite literally had to sit in her own waste because she was chained to her bed.”