Turpin horror house keeping me awake at night

[LivelyMummy]

I should have listened to my mum - apparently when pregnant you should keep away from bad news, scary movies, sad people etc

Since the story broke out, it is on my mind all the time. 13 beautiful children - how lucky are these parents! Just why treat them like this? I'm heart broken for these children.

There is nothing I can do. I am so angry, so sad, so helpless...

Does anyone understand why the parents did this?

It sounds like the mum is bewildered, so if even she doesn’t know how the hell can anyone else understand?

The pair seem like controlling loons - trying to create their impression of a life (the vow renewals, trips to Disneyland and Vegas...).

Nope, no details have been released re motive yet. It breaks my head too. Especially seeing the pictures of them at Disney land etc, the older ones look so underdeveloped and stuck in a time warp yet have such smiles on their face trying to have a good time. That really upset me and humanised it for me, seeing them all as real people instead of just words on a news report.

It's just a wild guess but from those recent pics at Disney land and the vows renewal and the fact they only recently moved to that small house and went bankrupt I wondered if perhaps things had been fine for a number of years until recently, maybe financial troubles hit and they didn't know how to cope or what to do and just got more and more isolated to shield themselves knowing what trouble they'd be in if anyone saw the state of the house, and somehow it just turned to madness and keeping them chained up as they knew if any got out they'd be investigated and prosecuted. But I have no idea. I'm watching with interest. Every time something like this happens you realise how little you know of neighbours and people down the street, and how many people must do similar.

It really made me think how much I believe the government should have the right to check up on home schooled kids too. Welfare and development checks. A friend of mine who home schools is dead against it saying it's nothing to do with the government but I disagree, it's not good for vulnerable kids to be shielded from all outside view for years on end.

I try to remember this is a good news story. Those kids have been rescued. Can't undo the bad past. But going forward will be much better.

The government is obliged to give every child an education (surely?) so should be entitled to check up on kids who are not in mainstream education.

I wonder if the children were born with medical assistance, have had their shots and checks etc? How long has this been their pattern of life?

It just sounds like some awful made for tv melodrama - you can hardly believe it’s real.

It’s really hard to shake things when you’re pregnant, I found anyway. I read a thread on here that made me cry for a few days. It passed eventually but I still remember it well, 8 years on.

I also wondered whether the youngest are the biological children of mum and dad in the family, sadly wouldn't surprise me if they were result of incest.

Given that the youngest is a year or two old and the mum is 47. Not impossible of course but it wouldn't surprise me at all. Just awful.

Janey a lot of the neighbours said they didn't even realise kids lived there. No toys in the garden, no noise, house big enough for six people max. It makes you think about threads on here though when someone feels something is amiss and asks if they should report to social services and everyone says they'd be a snitch and not to do it. If your gut tells you something is wrong or you see or hear something might be wrong ALWAYS report. Better to report something innocent than not report something horrifying, every damn time.

They were allowed one meal per day and 2 showers per year! Unbelievable cruelty. It's impossible to fathom.

All the children are from the mum and dad (no incest/sexual abuse). Its child neglect abuse. It's a horrible thing but there are bad people in this world. I am not pregnant but generally still try and avoid the news as it's depressing (I have had depression in the past and try to careful of my mental health).

I recently did a Child Protection course and one thing I was very struck by was the fact that most abusers were abused children themselves. Those awful perpetrators are often also the poor abused children we feel so sorry for. It's a vicious cycle.

Abusers go to great lengths to gain access to children eg spending years befriending a family to become the trusted uncle, marrying into a family with children or having children themselves, getting positions with access to children - teachers, scout leaders, football coaches, swimming coaches, clergy, television presenters, pop stars etc etc.

Organisations nowadays are much much better with their Child Protection than they were years ago when people weren't so well educated/aware. Children are actually much better protected now than they were - it's much less likely that paedophiles can gain positions of trust in places like children's homes/churches/sports clubs as controls are so much tighter.

They were allowed one meal per day and 2 showers per year!

Have more details been released?

When does a mum make that conscious decision - I'll buy some chains and just tie the kids up. I feel sick just at the thought of what these children have been through.

It's just a wild guess but from those recent pics at Disney land and the vows renewal and the fact they only recently moved to that small house and went bankrupt I wondered if perhaps things had been fine for a number of years

They went bankrupt in 2011. The trips to Vegas and Disneyland were all in the last six years so after bankruptcy

Apparently the father has been charged with a lewd act on a child.

Every time an awful story like this comes out it just makes me think- what is going on RIGHT NOW that we'll hear about next month or next year or in ten years, (or never). And it makes me shudder. Agree with poster above-if you have that tingly feeling something's not quite right- go with your gut and don't just drop it.

Just found this bbc link

A dependant adult. Would that imply a disability?

I have no idea how home education works there but in the UK the problem is the government seem to want to be able to check up on what's being taught/how education is being provided which home educators are firmly fighting, rightly imo, because the whole point is that you want to educate a different way to the way schools are set up for. Then the ones pretending to home educate to cover abuse hide behind that.

However if the government put their agenda to one side and checks were purely around basic child welfare, checking the child is warm, safe, fed, happy etc, (in the same way schools should be doing as by-product of seeing the child daily), I don't think any decent home educator would object to that, giving the abusive ones no place to hide.

The pictures on Facebook of Disneyland trips were marked as 5-6 yrs old. I thought (probably wrong) that all the pics were that old, even the littlest kid (supposed to now be 2yo).

I'm reading a lot more detail now about the escape & history of neglect. Sorry to upset folk with details. The restraint incidents started with ropes & escalated from there to chains. I have a black sense of humour & will need some fairly sick humour to deal with this, though.

Some of the kids have cognitive damage from malnutrition. :( Which is what we could have suspected from the 5-6 yr old pics of supposedly many people then age (then) 16-23.

I can't think of a too-harsh punishment for the parents.

I was reported to SS.

It's horrible to be accused of abusing or neglecting your kids. This is damaging too. Basically someone thought I was a terrible parent but didn't try to help me, they just went straight to condemning me. Someone had a terrible opinion of me & I couldn't ever know who or why.

Undermined my self-esteem and self-confidence. Made me distrust all my neighbours & everyone around me. That didn't make anything better in my life. SS was not further involved after their single visit. The net effect was 100% damage. If I was abusive, I would have turned extra sneaky about it, as a result.

I hope the Turpin kids can recover, now.

Lemonshark, This didn't just start after the trips to Disneyland. The adults wouldn't be so small and stunted if that was the case. They have probably all been systematically starved their whole lives. You can see how small they are from their arms, they also look very pale as if they hardly ever went out into sunlight.
I wonder if they're going to investigate for any dead children. It wouldn't be surprising if one or more children had died through such profound neglect.

Entire family slept all day and were up all night

Kids have written hundreds of journals.... evidence at the very least!

mloo as horrible as that was for you you can’t seriously be suggesting people don’t call SS with concerns because it will just make abusers more sneaky? I would rather “innocent” people have an uncomfortable visit from SS than let abusers go unchecked.

If charged then they will most likely spend the rest of their lives in prison. Shame they can't be chained in a cell and left.