Lorraine Kelly: An ordinary home in an ordinary street hid so much horror… what else happens behind closed doors?

THE story of the American couple accused of inflicting unspeakable acts of cruelty and torture upon their 13 children makes for grim reading.

It’s astonishing David and Louise Turpin were apparently able to get away with these alleged offences against their children who ranged in age from a toddler of two to an adult of 29.

One of their teenage daughters was able to somehow escape through a window and called the police to say that she and her brothers and sisters were being kept in chains and held hostage by their own parents.

Police officers discovered the children in a dreadful state; pale from being kept indoors and severely underweight and malnourished.

Conditions inside the house were disgusting.

It appears that the children were not allowed to go to the toilet and were only allowed to shower once a year. The stench must have been overpowering.

The couple have appeared in court and look as though they haven’t a care in the world. Their lawyers insist they are not guilty and will deny the charges.

But it’s almost as though they have no conception of the severity of the accusations of torture, false imprisonment and child abuse. The “father” is also accused of committing a “lewd act” upon one of the children aged under 14.

The plight of the children contrasts with the couple’s two dogs, found in good health.

We have been told the children were apparently taunted with food being left in the room, but they weren’t allowed or able to touch or eat it.

What really struck me was how this couple were allegedly able to commit these crimes in plain sight. It is a sad reflection on the authorities and community in the neighbourhood of Perrin, California.

It has emerged that the children hadn’t seen a doctor or dentist for four years.

Apparently, one son had been allowed at some point to attend college, with his mother taking him there and then picking him up, but the others were apparently not allowed to go to school.

These poor kids all simply slipped through the net, and nobody really cared.

Photographs have emerged of the Turpins renewing their vows in Vegas in front of an Elvis impersonator, with all the children present wearing identical outfits.

There were also photos of them on holiday in Disneyland.

To the outside world they looked like one big happy family, but in their case the camera lies.

It makes you wonder what other disturbing secrets are being kept behind closed doors while the rest of the world is looking the other way.

The Turpins will be in court again next month and, if found guilty, they will serve many years in jail.

Their kids, however, will be serving a life sentence of their own as they try to recover from their ordeal at the hands of people meant to be protecting them.