A couple who kept their young children inside what officials described as a “house of horrors” for three and a half years, claiming they were protecting them from the COVID-19 pandemic, have been sentenced.
In April 2025, police in Oviedo, Spain confirmed they rescued three children — a 10-year-old and 8-year-old twins — from a home in the area over three years after they were locked up following the final wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parents Christian Steffen, 54, and Melissa Ann Steffen, 49, were arrested and charged with domestic violence with habitual psychological abuse, child abandonment and illegal detention.
On Monday, May 11, the Provincial Court of Asturias sentenced them each to two years and 10 months in prison, according to El País.
They were sentenced to two years and four months for the domestic violence offense and four months for child abandonment, but were acquitted of the illegal detention charge, the newspaper reported.
Prosecutors had requested 25 years for each of the parents, taking into account all three of the original charges, per El País.
Their defense argued in court in March that there was no illegal detention but voluntary isolation, due to the “fear” the parents felt after contracting COVID-19, SUR in English reported.
Since they were rescued, the children — who had motor difficulties and health issues; were sleeping in cribs and wearing diapers — have been in the care of child protective services and are receiving treatment from psychologists, El País reported.
Both parents have been prevented from exercising parental rights over their children for three years and four months, are barred from communicating with them and have been ordered to pay them €30,000 (over $35,000) each, per SUR in English.
Local outlet El Comercio reported last year that authorities began an investigation into the family after a neighbor filed a complaint on April 14, 2025 about children not attending school.
Though nothing drew attention at first, officers witnessed Christian only leaving the home to pick up mail and grocery deliveries, and neighbors told police that they hadn’t seen the family leave the home since December 2021.
According to El País, police saw “bags and bags of garbage” in the house, while sources close to the investigation told the newspaper the family had “no television, no electronic devices for the children, hardly any games, not even shoes in their size.”
Once outside, officers observed the kids “touching the grass, breathing as if they had never done so before in their lives, they saw a snail and were completely fascinated.”
Credit: PEOPLE
