‘House of horrors’ dad who allegedly starved and beat his 14 children and dressed them in rags fronts court in clean, freshly ironed outfit

EXCLUSIVE

The father accused of starving his fourteen children, beating them in a ‘house of horrors’ and dressing them ‘in rags’ has appeared in court wearing a clean, freshly ironed outfit.

The father, who is on bail on a total of 24 charges, appeared briefly in a New South Wales court on Thursday accused of years of alleged abuse in a filthy and now abandoned suburban home where the family lived among filth and running sewage.

The 55-year-old’s lawyer, Gazi Abbas, asked Magistrate David Price to further adjourn the case until November while the suspect arranged legal aid funding.

The father is charged with multiple counts of assault and alleged felony counts of sexual assault of a child under the age of 16; taking and holding to gain advantage for sexual, psychological and physical abuse; and intentionally sexually touching a child under the age of 10.

The father declined to comment as he left court. His identity and that of his co-suspect, his wife, are being withheld for legal reasons.

Above is the house of horrors where the historic abuse against 14 children ranging in age from their late teens to an infant is said to have taken place

One of the couple’s big children has told Daily Mail Australia how she and her siblings were left tied up in the ‘disgusting and disgusting’ house.

The daughter said their clothes were “all hand-me-downs, old things from people we knew or things rejected from the market.”

Meanwhile, “the food was the stuff that they would have thrown away or given to the animals because it was too old to eat, that my father had gotten for us.”

The teenage girl said the children were actually dressed in rags and given leftover food.

The children’s mother was “supposedly homeschooling” the children, but the girl said “actually… you taught yourself from the books” and the siblings had no TV or internet.

‘The house was disgusting. The bathroom was actually in the kitchen and had raw sewage flowing through it. Then we moved to a cleaner house, but it was the same situation with our parents,” she said.

The family was moved from the house – which was declared uninhabitable and is now due to be demolished – to another house a 10-minute drive away.

In this newer home the whippings and beatings continued.

The father leaves a Sydney court on Thursday wearing a freshly pressed outfit

The locked and abandoned property had sewage and the children were reportedly fed leftovers and dressed in donated rags

Police arrested the parents at a home in September last year after the teenage girl managed to email authorities through a third person to inform them of their allegedly horrific situation.

All children, including a toddler, were removed from the parents’ care and arrest warrants were issued for the couple on behalf of all children.

The children’s mother is charged with common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and concealment of a serious criminal offence.

She is also accused of vandalizing and damaging the home where the children were allegedly abused, knowingly concealing alleged child abuse and failing to notify police.

The teenage daughter described her parents in mixed terms. “I say my father is a good man, but a bad father,” she said.

“My mother is a bad mother and a bad person.”

Both parents were originally charged with a total of 60 offences, some of which will soon be dropped.

The charges cover a wide range of allegations, including that some children were punched and beaten. The accused mother will appear in court at a later date.