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.
Authorities discovered three young boys at the Oviedo residence, notoriously referred to as the “house of horrors.” It is believed they have resided there for four years, coinciding with the start of the pandemic.
The boys, eight-year-old twins and a ten-year-old, were found living in appalling conditions. They were each wearing three face masks, were obligated to wear diapers, and slept in beds that resembled cages.
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.
A local woman claimed she often heard what sounded like children’s voices coming from the home, though she never witnessed anyone leaving for outdoor play or school activities.
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.
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.
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.
