A Texas woman has been sentenced to several decades in prison following her conviction for extended child abuse against her teenage daughter and son, officials in Texas announced this week.

Susan Rae Helton, 53, was found guilty by a jury on four counts of causing serious bodily injury to a child, the Comal County District Attorney’s Office confirmed. The verdict was delivered in late January.

The jury handed down a 20-year sentence for each count. In court, 466th District Court Judge Stephanie Bascon ruled that the sentences for the first two counts, related to one child, would be served concurrently, as would the sentences for the third and fourth counts, related to the second child. However, she ordered that the sentences for each child be served consecutively, meaning Helton faces a total of 40 years behind bars. According to prosecutors, Helton must serve at least half of this sentence before being eligible for parole.

The identities of the victims have not been publicly disclosed.

The abuse initially came to light in the summer of 2018, according to records from the Comal County Jail. During that time, a Child Protective Services investigation highlighted concerns about the physical abuse and neglect of two of Helton’s adopted children, prompting an inquiry by the New Braunfels Police Department.

“Helton had been a foster mother and had adopted eight children over the years, all of whom had previously suffered abuse or neglect,” noted the District Attorney’s office in a press release. “From the outset of the investigation, the CPS worker was alarmed by the size and physical condition of two of the children. Victim #1, aged 14, weighed only 48 pounds, while Victim #2, aged 13, weighed just 50 pounds.”

Fears of continued abuse and neglect were soon borne out.

During the investigation, all of the children living with the defendant were interviewed. Two of the children told investigators they were starved and physically abused with a belt if they were caught “stealing” food from the kitchen. The victims also said they were largely confined to small triangular cages during the day. One of the children said they were often kept in their cage overnight — another effort aimed at making sure they did not “steal food.”

Those accounts were corroborated by the other children in the house, according to law enforcement. The other children described the girl and boy being locked up in their cages for up to two or three weeks at a time when they were “in trouble.”

“As evidence emerged, it became clear that Helton targeted these two children,” the DA’s office said.

During a surprise CPS visit, an investigator found baby gates used to confine the children – and asked the victims to assemble them. Helton herself was asked to set up the gates in the configuration she used when the children slept and admitted to confining them in the gates because they were “sugar-seeking” and stealing food.

As the investigation continued, law enforcement learned that all of the children in the house were homeschooled and that the defendant regularly failed to follow up on doctors’ referrals. It was eventually learned that both victims had gained only six pounds and had grown only three inches during the five years they had lived with Helton.

All the children were removed from the residence and provided proper nutrition, and the two victims gained over eight pounds in less than a month, according to the DA’s office. The victims were diagnosed with severe malnutrition and failure to thrive.

During a two-week trial, prosecutors provided jurors with several pieces of expert testimony.

On the witness stand, Dr. Shona Rabon of Dell Children’s Medical Center testified that she has treated hundreds of pediatric patients over the course of her career and said the Helton case was one of the worst cases of malnourishment she had ever encountered.

To hear the expert tell it, the children were not growing due to the absence of caloric intake and proper nutrition.

“It was as simple as that,” Rabon told the jury.

Both victims also took the stand to address their captor.

The female victim testified Helton forced her to stand inside the baby gates for most of the day while doing exercises, reading, completing homework — and that she ate and slept there. She also said she has continuous nightmares of being hunted down and trapped by the defendant.

The male victim testified life with Helton was “rough” and he was constantly trying to keep himself and his sister alive. He also said he never got enough food and that if he obtained food without permission the defendant would beat him with a belt or put him back in the cage.

The defendant took the stand in her own defense.

Helton disputed claims of using the belt to spank the children, said she never forced them to perform excessive exercise as punishment, and said the children never ate inside the cages. During cross-examination, the defendant admitted to keeping the children in the cages as a matter of convenience to give herself a break and said the girl slept in the cage for upward of 18 months total.

“Susan Helton took possession of these children [and was] supposed to be the forever home they yearned for,” prosecutor Jessica Frazier told the jury during closing arguments. “And what did she do? She caged them like animals. She punished them on purpose. She punished them by taking away the basic needs for a child. I’m going to ask you to free them from these cages once and for all. Free them from the cages she has had them in for all these years.”