A couple in Denver made a court appearance for child abuse charges after allegedly starving their four sons and forcing them to live in a dirty apartment filled with cat feces, urine, and flies, ABC News reported.
Wayne Sperling, 66, and Lorinda Bailey, 35, were charged with four counts of felony child abuse charges on Tuesday after their four boys, aged 2, 4, 5, and 6, were immediately placed in protective care after apearing non-verbal, unwashed, and abused to authorities.
After Bailey brought the youngest boy to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital for a cut on his forehead in September, a doctor notified the police after discovering other marks on him, prompting an investigation by police and social workers.
When Denver Police Officer N. Rocco-McKeel visited the couple's apartment with a case worker, they discovered five cats and feces throughout the apartment in addition to a "strong odor of a decomposing animal." Rocco-McKeel noted that flies were in "every surface" of the apartment, including the boys' bedroom -- which had a floor soaked in urine -- and could not determine the age differences between the children, who can only communicate in grunts.
The mother denied that the apartment was unsafe and claimed the boys did not have developmental issues. She also said she was living alone in a different unit of the building for the past two months but still saw the children every day except Saturday and Sunday "when she works too much."
The father told investigators he was unemployed and was the boys' primary guardian and that they have "their own language." Sperling also said he intended to start home-schooling the eldest boy.
A doctor at the Family Crisis Center said it did not seem that the boys regularly visited the doctor and that the 5-year-old had no medical records at all.
This is not the first time authorities were warned of the child abuse going on at the boys' home. In 2012, Denver police filed a report after finding unsanitary living conditions at the apartment. In 2006, the couple faced three charges of misdemeanor child abuse and plead guilty to the same charges in 2009, which led three of the boys out of Bailey's custody for a period of time.
