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Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
Three children have allegedly been found living in prison-like conditions following COVID 'lockdown' rules, long after pandemic restrictions ended.
A German couple living in Spain have been arrested after allegedly locking their three children inside and forcing them to abide by pandemic restrictions, such as wearing masks, for the past four years.
The siblings, eight-year-old twins and a 10-year-old, were dramatically rescued from the 'house of horrors' in Oviedo on Monday (April 28) after being locked up inside since around December 2021.
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Once freed, cops noticed the children acted unusually to being outside, as they touched the grass and appeared intrigued by a snail.
An investigator also said: "As soon as we got them out, all three children began to breathe deeply, as if they had never been outside before," according to New York Post.
The authorities learnt of the children's situation after a neighbor filed a complaint on April 14 that the youngsters had not been attending school, according to El Comercio.
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Yet while Oviedo Police Chief Javier Lozano said there was nothing 'initially' that sparked concern, cops grew suspicious after surveillance on the home revealed the 53-year-old father was the only person to leave the residence to pick up groceries and mail.
Other neighbors reported the rest of the family had not left the home since December 2021.
When police approached the family, the father reportedly 'agreed' to let them in while they spotted the mom, a 48-year-old German-American woman, putting three masks each on the children, per El Mundo.
It is also reported that she told officers to 'be careful' since her children were 'very sick.'
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Only from inside did they realize the extent of the children's situation, finding the home was filled with garbage and littered with large quantities of medication and masks that presented a 'clearly unsanitary situation'.
Councilor for Citizen Security, José Ramón Prado, added that it was a 'pathogenic environment.'
The children also slept in cribs, despite their age, and had 'defaced monsters and dolls.'
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It was later revealed that the children did not appear to suffer from any illnesses.
Lozano dubbed the property a 'house of horrors' during a press conference while another 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."
The agent added: "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 have since been taken to a juvenile center while their parents are held in pretrial detention without bail.
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The duo, said to have 'COVID syndrome', have been arrested and charged on suspicion of domestic violence with habitual psychological abuse and child abandonment, according to Oviedo Police Department, reports ABC.
Lozano added: "We've all been affected by Covid syndrome and what the pandemic has brought, and we can speculate about what led a family to live locked up for so long."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.