In January of 2018, David and Louise Turpin of California were arrested after it was discovered that they abused their 13 children, who range from ages 2 to 29. The abuse took place in the form of starvation, beatings, isolation, denial of showers and medication, and being shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks. After a particularly terrible beating, one 17 year-old girl planned her escape for more than two years and eventually managed to succeed, using a deactivated cell phone to call the police after escaping from a window. During the twenty minute phone call, she described the horrible living conditions she, her 9 sisters, and 3 brothers went through. Originally, the parents pleaded not guilty, but on Friday, February 22nd, 2019, they finally pleaded guilty to 14 counts of torture, adult abuse, child abuse, child endangerment, false imprisonment, and more, and face 25 years to life in prison. The damage they caused, however, is lasting, as one 11-year-old was so malnourished that her limbs are the size of an infant's, most had muscle wasting, two daughters will never be able to have children, and several of the siblings suffer from psychological dwarfism.
This article was written by Dakin Andone, Paul Vercammen, and Cheri Mossburg and was updated on the same day that the Turpin parents pleaded guilty. I cannot even begin to imagine how it must have been to be treated like the Turpin children were. Reading the article made me feel sick, even if it doesn't get too detailed or show any pictures of their conditions either today or a year ago. The descriptions made me think of how badly children were injured when working in factories during the Industrial Revolution in America, which is crazy considering that that was over a 100 years ago. This kind of disregard for child life, or any life, really, should be a relic of the past by now.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/22/us/turpin-parents-plead-guilty/index.html
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/gasps-as-horror-photographs-of-shackled-turpin-children-shown-in-court/news-story/9751d9efd0d160166ec8ba1ccf24a5b0
(The first link is the article I first came across, and the second is an article I found while doing more research and that goes into more detail.)
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