Isolated since corona German couple locked up children for years
Spanish police in Oviedo have freed three children of a German couple who had been isolated at home since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The parents were arrested and the children were taken into care.
30.04.2025, 19:02
dpa
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- Three children of a German couple have been freed in Oviedo after years of isolation and neglect.
- They had not been allowed to leave the house since 2021 and were living in terrible conditions.
- The parents were arrested.
Spanish police have freed three children of a German couple who had been locked up at home since the coronavirus pandemic. The parents were arrested in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo and the children were placed in a home, a police spokeswoman confirmed on request. Police officer Francisco Javier Lozano spoke of a "horror house", as the newspaper "La Nueva España" reported.
Spanish media reported that the house on the outskirts of the city was completely littered. A neighbor had noticed that children were living there who never went to school. She alerted the police. The authorities did not initially provide any information as to why the parents had isolated their children from the outside world.
Isolated since corona
The children, eight-year-old twins and a ten-year-old boy, had not left the house since December 2021, Spanish media reported, citing the authorities. They had not even been allowed into the garden of the house.
They had to sleep in cribs in the house. They were cut off from any contact with the outside world. They also never went to school. The parents forced them to wear diapers and face masks, as local newspapers reported.
Children took a deep breath and wondered about grass
When the children were first led out of the house by officials, one of them was astonished to touch the grass of the lawn with her hands. "As soon as we got them out, all three began to breathe deeply, as if they had never been out in the fresh air before," an investigator told the newspaper "La Nueva España".
When police officers entered the house on Monday during the massive power outage in Spain, the parents first demanded that the officers also put on masks. The police confirmed that the mother had US citizenship as well as German citizenship. It was initially unknown where in Germany the family came from.
