Inside 'house of horrors' where kids held prisoner in nappies and cages

Daily Mirror

01-05-2025

A couple is alleged to have kept their two twins and their 10-year-old brother captive in a house of horrors in the where they were forced to sleep in cages for four years
Children freed from an alleged "house of horrors" where they were forced to sleep in cages for four years gave a heartbreaking reaction after their liberation.
A German couple was arrested for alleged child abuse after officers raided their home. Three young boys, two twins aged eight and their 10-year-old brother, reportedly were held captive in the house for four years after Covid crisis began. The youngsters were all found wearing face masks, and when they were finally freed, they knelt on the grass and "touched it with amazement," according to police.
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The mother allegedly told police she thought it was the best way to keep them safe. Spanish police said the house in the Asturian capital Oviedo, in northern Spain, was in a disgusting state, with hoards of rubbish and mountains of accumulated medicines together with filthy pet excrement and a cat with a massive tumour.
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The children were forced to wear nappies and had to sleep in caged beds, police said. The children were kept out of school and were forbidden to leave the house. Doors were locked and windows permanently closed and they couldn't even go into the garden.
Police said the children were kept so well hidden that neighbours did not know they were inside the home. A 53-year-old German husband and his wife, a 48-year-old American, with dual nationality are being held in custody without bail pending further investigations.
The operation began on April 14 after a resident of the area raised the alarm. The woman had heard voices that sounded like children coming from the house although he had never seen anyone leave the house to play or go to school. But, after several days of surveillance, the investigators were clear that more than one person had to live there.
This was indicated by the boxes of food of the orders that the man brought into the home. The agents could not believe what they found when they entered the house. The minors were barefoot, wearing nappies and still sleeping in cribs. When they wanted to take them out of the building, they did not even have shoes of their size, since they had not bought shoes for years.
The chief commissioner of the Local Police of Oviedo, Francisco Javier Lozano, gave a press conference on Wednesday in which he explained the details of the operation, which resulted in the arrest of the couple at 2.45pm on Monday. The initial search of the house was made more difficult because Spain had been plunged into darkness by the electricity outrage.
When officers knocked on the door, the dad answered but asked police to wait a few minutes so their children could put on masks, which was reported to be three each. One officer told the local press: "They were very scared and around the mother, who told us all the time that the little ones had serious pathologies and that we should not approach them. They had three masks each on top of each other. They were oblivious to any contact with reality."
The children spoke mostly in English. After being evaluated at the Central University Hospital of Asturias, they have been placed under the guardianship of the Government of the Principality.
It is not ruled out that their parents could be charged with crimes of habitual abuse, abandonment of minors, and against fundamental rights. As a summary of the operation, the words of the chief commissioner of the Local Police of Oviedo, Francisco Javier López Lozano said: "We have dismantled the house of horrors".