For about a month, the children must have been subjected to violence of a “torture-like nature”, according to the Västmanland District Court. Among other things, they have been tied up and locked in different spaces, forcibly showered and left alone without supervision.
The couple has also exercised violence against the children with and without the attachment.
“That the course has been drawn out over time, that the children were defenseless and that the crimes have taken place in the home, which is supposed to be a safe place, and by adults who have responsibility for the children are aggravating circumstances,” the court writes in a press release.
The pair are now being sentenced for, among other things, kidnapping, extremely serious assault and illegal deprivation of liberty. They are also convicted of four counts of gross child welfare crimes because the children, and two other children who were in the family, have witnessed the abuse.