Turpin family: CCTV of children 'escaping from house of horrors in California'

CCTV footage has emerged which appears to show children escaping from the 'house of horrors' in California where they were allegedly shacked to beds and tortured by their parents.

The footage, taken from a camera across the street from the ‘house of horrors’ where they are alleged to have been imprisoned, shows the family filing out of the building.

The children can be seen dashing out of the house in Perris one after the other.

The video shows some of the older kids appearing to carry younger siblings into a van parked on the driveway.

It is not known whether the footage was taken before or after their parents, David and Louise Turpin, were arrested suspicion of child endangerment and torture.

The pair were detained by officials after their 17-year-old daughter raised the alarm and led police to the home, where they discovered 12 other siblings living in squalid conditions.

Authorities have since claimed that the 13 kids – aged between two and 29 – were confined to the house and chained to furniture.

Police said they were not given food and not allowed to use the toilet at times. Some of them did not know what a police officer was.

David, 57, and Louise, 49, were charged with carrying out years of torture and abuse that left their children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments.

Mr Turpin, who previously had a £100,000-a-year job as an engineer, is also charged with one count of a lewd act against a child under 14.

They both pleaded not guilty in Riverside County, California, to all counts of torture, child abuse and false imprisonment.

After the parents were arrested, shocked residents of the neighbourhood recalled how the children were often kept indoors.

And a former neighbour of the family, from when they lived in Rio Vista, Texas, told the Los Angeles Times that the Turpins never socialized and rarely left their house.

Ricky Vinyard said they kept lights on at all hours with blinds drawn and, one Christmas, they bought eight new children's bicycles that sat outside, unused.