Spanish police rescued three boys, all German nationals, last Monday from a ‘house of horrors’ after the children hadn’t been seen since 2021, according to international media reports from earlier this week.
A 53-year-old German man and a 48-year-old American woman were arrested in Oviedo, northeast Spain, and charged with domestic violence, habitual psychological abuse, and child abandonment, ABC News reported.
The boys, two eight-year-old twins and a 10-year-old, were discovered in a home filled with trash, with masks and a large quantity of medication, officers told Spanish outlet El Mundo.
The couple, according to The Telegraph, had forced the three boys to wear masks and diapers throughout and past the end of lockdown.
Parents lock down children after struggling to overcome 'Covid syndrome'
Investigators told El Comercio that they believed the parents may have suffered from “Covid syndrome” and had been living with extreme fear of the virus for the last four years.
“We have all been affected by the Covid syndrome and the consequences of the pandemic. We can reflect on what led a family to live in confinement for so long,” the investigator said.
Officers were made to wear three masks on top of one another before being allowed to enter the property, Bild reported.
Despite the mother’s claim that the boys were “very sick,” the boys’ health status appeared to have only deteriorated as a result of cleanliness and lack of exposure to the outside world.
One agent told El Mundo: "The children were in terrible shape. It was absolutely outrageous. Not malnourished, because they were fed.
"But they were also dirty… [and] completely cut off from reality, and not just because they didn't go to school. When we took them out of the house, into the garden, where they wouldn't even go outside, they saw a snail and went crazy, freaked out."
The children were only discovered when a neighbor called the police to report that the boys were not attending school.
Police also reportedly found a seriously ill cat, which was not taken for medical attention at the vet over fear of the virus.
The family would reportedly have groceries delivered outside their home and would never step outside.
Oviedo Police Chief Javier Lozano said at a conference last week: "We have given three children back their lives…We have dismantled the house of horrors."