MADRID, May 12 — A German couple have been sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison in Spain after locking their three children in a “house of horror” filled with rubbish for three and a half years, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
A court in the northern city of Oviedo yesterday found the 54-year-old man and his 49-year-old wife guilty of psychological abuse and negligence, although they were acquitted of the more serious charge of unlawful detention.
Prosecutors had sought a 25-year prison sentence for the pair in a shocking case that made headlines in both Spain and Germany.
The children — eight-year-old twins and a 10-year-old boy at the time — were rescued at the end of April 2025 after a neighbour alerted police. Investigators described the residence as a “house of horror”.
The parents maintained their innocence and claimed they isolated their three young children from the outside world to protect them from contracting diseases such as Covid-19.
However, police told dpa the children were found “dirty, in their pyjamas, and severely neglected”, as well as “significantly malnourished”.
The house was reportedly “littered with rubbish everywhere”, while a seriously ill cat was also found surrounded by excrement.
The children were reportedly forced to wear nappies and face masks and had been completely cut off from the outside world, including being barred from entering the garden.
