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Riverside County Sheriff's Department
World News

'Good Christian' parents who tortured and abused children given life sentences

by Press Association

Their crimes were only discovered when one of their daughters fled their home and pleaded for help to a 911 operator.

The sentencing of David and Louise Turpin was preceded by the first public statements from some of the children, who alternately spoke of love for their parents and of what they had suffered despite it as the couple wiped away tears.

 

The Turpins pleaded guilty in February to neglect and abuse.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt my children, I love my children so much," Louise Turpin said.

The parents told ABC News last year they were "surprised and shocked" by the allegations and couldn't understand "any of it".

They said that they are considered to be a good Christian family in their community and that added that "God called on them" to have as many children as they did.

The pair also said their grandchildren had "very strict home-schooling," and they would memorise long passages of the Bible - some of them aimed to learn the entire Bible.

None of the children have been publicly identified.

One of the adult children walked into court already in tears just after the hearing began, holding hands with a prosecutor.

PA
Louise Turpin appears in court in Riverside, Calif. in January

A daughter said: "Life may have been bad but it made me strong.

"I fought to become the person that I am. I saw my dad change my mum. They almost changed me but I realised what was happening.

"I'm a fighter, I'm strong and I'm shooting through life like a rocket."

Some of the others said they still love their parents.

One asked for a lighter sentence because "they believed everything they did was to protect us".

PA
David Turpin appears in court in Riverside, Calif. in January

The horrors within the home were concealed behind a veneer of suburban normalcy in a middle-class section of Perris, a small city about 60 miles south-east of Los Angeles.

The residence was neatly kept and neighbours rarely saw the children outside but nothing triggered suspicion.

David Turpin, 57, had been an engineer for Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

Louise Turpin, 50, was listed as a housewife in a 2011 bankruptcy filing.

But the children's desperate plight became public after a teenage daughter escaped from the filthy home by jumping from a window, then used a mobile phone to contact a police dispatcher and begin describing years of horrific abuse.

When deputies arrived, they were shocked by what they discovered.

A 22-year-old son was chained to a bed and two girls had just been set free from their shackles.

The house was covered in filth and the stench of human waste was overwhelming.

Deputies testified the children said they were only allowed to shower once a year.

Mike Blake/Pool Photo via AP

Children said they were beaten, caged and shackled to beds if they did not obey their parents.

Most of the 13 children - who ranged in age from two to 29 - were severely underweight and had not bathed for months.

The desperate cry for help from the 17-year-old came after a lifetime of living in such isolation, the girl did not know her address, the month of the year or what the word "medication" meant.

They were mainly kept in their rooms except for meals, which had been reduced from three to one per day, a combination of lunch and dinner.

Investigators found the toddler had not been abused but all of the children were taken to hospital after they were discovered.

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