Twins & brother, 8 & 10, discovered imprisoned in ‘House of Horrors' in Spain after being held captive since Covid

Scottish Sun

01-05-2025

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COPS have uncovered a "house of horrors" where parents kept three children captive since the beginning of the Covid pandemic.
A German couple have been arrested for alleged child abuse after the police raided the house in Spain.
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Cops freed three young children from a house where they had been held captive since the pandemic
Credit: Spanish Police Image
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The children were forced to sleep in caged beds
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The house was also full of rubbish and pet excrement
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Cops have arrested the children's parents for alleged child abuse
Credit: AFP
The police found three young boys at the Oviedo home - dubbed the "house of horrors" - who are thought to have lived there for four years since the pandemic began.
The eight-year-old twins and ten-year-old boy were discovered in horrific conditions - each wearing three face masks and forced to wear nappies and sleep in caged beds.
The police said the house was full of rubbish and old medicines as well as filthy pet excrement and a cat with a massive tumour.
The children were reportedly kept out of school and were forbidden to leave the house.
The doors were locked and windows permanently closed - even the garden was off limits.
The children were kept so hidden that even neighbours did not realise they were in the house.
Cops were only called when a resident in the area raised the alarm.
The woman reportedly heard voices that sounded like children coming from the house despite never having seen anyone leave the house to play or go to school.
After several days of surveillance cops were clear that more than just the man they saw coming in and out had to live there.
This was indicated by the movements that could be sensed through the few windows that were not closed as well as the boxes of food of the orders that the man brought into the home.
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But nothing could prepare the agents for what they would find when they entered the horror house.
The children 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 as they had not bought shoes for years.
The police added that when the children were freed, one of them knelt on the grass and "touched it with amazement".
The chief commissioner of the Local Police of Oviedo, Francisco Javier Lozano explained the details of the operation leading to the arrest of the couple at 2.45pm on Monday.
The initial search of the house was reportedly made more difficult because Spain had been plunged into darkness by the electricity outrage.
When the cops knocked on the front door, the father answered but asked the officers to wait for a few minutes so the children could put their masks on.
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The boys have now been placed under the guardianship of the Government of the Principality
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The cops were horrified by what they found inside the house
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The children were forbidden to leave the house
One police officer told the Spanish 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."
Lozano added: "We have dismantled the house of horrors".
The children's parents - a 53-year-old German husband and his 48-year-old American wife - are being held in custody without bail pending further investigations.
It is unknown why the couple were keeping the kids locked inside their own home.
But the mother has reportedly told police they thought it was the best way to keep them safe.
Having been checked out at the Central University Hospital of Asturias the children have now been placed under the guardianship of the Government of the Principality.
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The cops launched an investigation after a resident raised concerns that there may be people inside the house
Credit: EPA