'House of Horrors' dad who kept his three kids prisoner since Covid seen for first time

Daily Mirror

02-05-2025

The first image of a father who kept his three children hidden inside a 'house of horrors' for four years has been pictured for the first time.
Christian Steffen, 53, and his wife Melissa Ann Steffen, 48, were arrested after neighbours raised the alarm after hearing children making noises in the house, despite never having seen any coming or going. Police discovered three boys - two eight-year-old twins and their 10-year-old brother - inside the home which was kept in a disgusting state, with piles of rubbish animal excrement on the ground. Each of the boys was also forced to wear nappies and they slept in caged beds.
Their father has now been pictured for the first time. He is said to have worked as a freelance tech recruiter and an HR manager. He is also believed to have a PhD from Hamburg University.
A source close to the case told El Espanyol: "The minors had a schedule for going to the bathroom and a maximum number of times per day because the rest of the time they had to wear diapers.
"They were obsessed with the idea their children had serious illnesses and were going to die from the pandemic.
"All the blinds in the house were closed, except for those in the children's two bedrooms, which were allowed to be open exactly halfway across the window. At 5.10pm every day, the children were to lower the blinds in their rooms ."
The children were kept out of school and were forbidden to leave the house. Instead, there was a study room where the children were taught how to read, write and do maths.
Each child was barefoot and wearing nappies when police arrived. When they were taken out of the building the children did not even have shoes of their sizes to wear.
A police officer said earlier: 'They were very scared and around the mother, who told us all the time 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.
'They touched the grass and breathed fresh air as if they had never done so before in their lives. They saw a snail and they were completely taken aback.'
The chief commissioner of the Local Police of Oviedo, Francisco Javier Lozano, told a press conference the German couple were arrested. The initial search of the house had been made more difficult because Spain was in darkness by the electricity outage.
He added: 'We have dismantled the house of horrors.'
When police 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.
The children, who spoke mostly in English, were evaluated at the Central University Hospital of Asturias and placed under the guardianship of the Government of the Principality.