A couple who kept their three young children locked inside a squalid house for nearly four years have been jailed in a case that has shaken Spain.
Authorities last April rescued three boys – twins, then aged eight, and their 10-year-old brother – from the “house of horrors” in the northern city of Oviedo, where they had been forced to remain since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The children were found with marked motor difficulties, wearing diapers and sleeping in cribs in a filthy house full of rubbish and stockpiled medication.
Their parents, who are understood to have developed a fear of the outside world during the pandemic, were each sentenced on Monday to two years and 10 months in prison.
The couple were both found guilty of family abandonment and causing psychological harm, but were cleared of more stringent charges of unlawful detention. Prosecutors had sought 25-year prison sentences.
Police officers who rescued the children said that on entering the house they found bag upon bag of rubbish piled up at the bottom of the stairs.
“They had no television, no electronic devices for the children, hardly any games, not even shoes in their size; the shoes the children had were the size they wore four years ago, when they arrived,” sources close to the investigation told El Pais.
Officers were said to be shocked by how the children reacted to going outside.
“They were touching the grass, breathing as if they had never done so before in their lives. They saw a snail and were completely fascinated.”
The prosecution said the children had not been outside in four years, not even into their own garden, and did not know their relatives.
They said the prolonged use of diapers had left the children with poor bowel and bladder control. The children walked with hunched backs and struggled to go up and down the stairs, according to La Sexta.
The defence argued during the trial that the parents had made “a series of decisions, certainly wrong, incorrect, but not criminal”.
Police arrested the couple in April 2025 after finding the children, following a tip-off from a neighbour.
The father has been identified as a 53-year-old German citizen, while the mother, 48, is a dual citizen of Germany and the United States. They had been renting the chalet, in a rural area of Oviedo, since October 2021.
The parents were ordered to pay compensation of €30,000 (£26,000) to each child and were stripped of custody of the children for at least three years and four months following Monday’s verdict.
The children have been placed in the care of social services, according to local media. The ruling has not been made public as judges believe it contains sensitive information affecting the victims’ privacy.
Javier Munoz, the lawyer for the mother, said the children were homeschooled, had “a stable family life” and were well fed.
Mr Munoz said the couple, who have been held in preventive custody since their arrest, were “moderately satisfied” with the sentence, but were still considering appealing the ruling.
