The six words in a top secret email that ended years of sick abuse of kids as young as five – whose evil PARENTS whipped, starved and beat them inside a suburban Sydney home
EXCLUSIVE
It took a brave teenager and stolen time on a laptop to end the years-long reign of terror and abuse inflicted on their children in the family home by twisted parents.
The end finally started with an email to the police asking simply, “Can I get benefits…?”
A few days later, the teen mustered the courage behind her anonymous email account to finally tell an officer, “I’ve been abused my whole life and I’ve had enough…”
It sparked a raid that led to police uncovering the house of horrors lurking in plain sight in the Sydney suburb.
Detectives burst into the house and discovered that the children had been beaten, starved and flogged by their parents for years.
Their scars, wounds and bruises were hidden from the eyes of their neighbors because their parents forbade their children to wear shorts – or clothing that exposed skin from the collarbone to the ankle.
The children were forbidden to go to school, socialize with friends, visit public places or shops or play sports. Girls were not even allowed to cut their hair short.
The large family had lived at a number of rental addresses in Sydney, often in the misery of open sewers and vermin.
The large Muslim family lived in squalor in a house with running sewage and vermin, where the children were addicted to keeping it clean or risk their father being beaten with an electrical cord.
The girls were initially terrified that their parents would find out about their report to the police
A plaintive email to police read: ‘Hello, I hope you are doing well. I have been abused all my life and I have had enough. But I don’t want the people who did this to me to go to jail. Even though what they did to me, I will never be the same.”
Their several children, aged between five months and nineteen years, were confined to their ‘disgusting and abhorrent’ homes and subjected to unthinkable horror.
Their father’s iron fist saw him lash out with his weapon of choice – a doubled-up electrical cord – whenever his children failed in his servile duties.
All names and identifying factors of the case, including the exact size of the family, are suppressed under NSW law.
But father S, a 57-year-old Middle Eastern-born repairman, and his Islamic convert wife, C, 46, led a “controlling and disciplined home environment for their children who followed strict Islamic religious beliefs,” according to police.
One daughter, H, told Daily Mail Australia they were essentially given scraps of food and worn rags.
“Hand-me-downs, old things from people we knew or rejecting things from the market,” she said.
“The food was the stuff they threw away or would have given to the animals because it was too old to eat, that my dad got for us,” she said.
How their father beat them to a bloody pulp and how their unemployed Centrelink-receiving mother endured the abuse can now be revealed for the first time as both parents have pleaded guilty to multiple charges.
That includes the details of two of the sisters’ secret email campaign, which was conducted clandestinely with police and risked violent retaliation against the terrified siblings.
More than once, the girls, then aged 17 and 19, shied away from telling police the truth, then flirted with the danger of discovery while secretly recording their little brothers and sisters’ insults.
Father S will be convicted on Tuesday of 26 offences, including assaulting his children from the age of five, and a daughter aged 10, on her back, legs and arms for more than 15 minutes.
The girl was unable to sit down afterward and the whip marks, striped and shaped like the electrical cord, were visible for weeks.
S also bit his primary school daughter, called her ‘fat’, pushed and punched her, stepped on her face and punched his four-year-old son in the mouth until he bled because he didn’t eat vegetables.
According to NSW Police Facts, obtained by Daily Mail Australia, they were “the subject of physical abuse and assault by S and C throughout the victims’ lives.”
The father, 57, has pleaded guilty to 26 crimes against his own children and will be sentenced on Monday
The three older sisters gradually informed police about the abuse via email, recording video and audio on their parents’ tablets
The police initially deterred the sisters by demanding that they come to the police station in person
Enslaved, starved and beaten, the older girls eventually mustered the courage to secretly email the police and escape their lives of torture.
The house of horrors where the historic abuse against multiple children ranging in age from late teens to primary school age took place
“These acts were frequent and often took place in full view of the other victims.”
Between their responsibilities – preparing meals, cleaning, vacuuming, mopping, wiping surfaces, washing clothes, feeding the animals and feeding, washing and caring for their younger siblings – the older girls had been homeschooled.
But not to NSW Department of Education standards, and as H told Daily Mail Australia, it was left to them without any access to TV or internet.
“Actually… you taught yourself from the books,” she said.
One house was deemed uninhabitable if “the bathroom was actually in the kitchen and had raw sewage flowing through it.”
The family moved to another house 10 minutes drive away – but the hitting and hitting continued.
In early 2022, the family’s second-oldest child, H, who was about to turn 18, created a secret Instagram account and email address that allowed her to access her parents’ laptop while they slept.
One of the daughters opened a secret Instagram account and email address in early 2022, with the sisters telling police they had ‘had enough’
Her sisters, aged 19 and 16, were aware of the story. H posted photos of cats, rabbits and goats on Instagram.
In March 2022, the children’s mother C told them sharply that the house had to be ‘spotless’ for their father S.
She talked about how her children were the biggest regret of her life, how much she hated them and how she wished all her children were dead.
Within days, H contacted NSW Police via a secret email account under a pseudonym.
She wrote: ‘Hi, can I get a welfare check? [family’s Sydney address]. I would like to remain anonymous.’
In the conversations that followed, mostly with an officer ‘DH’ (name withheld), the police initially did not understand how limited H and her siblings were in reporting the abuse.
On March 11, 2022, H’s 19-year-old sister, A, wrote to NSW Police: ‘I am an adult child living with his parents and siblings. My parents are sometimes abusive.”
Ten days later, an email said, “Hi, I was wondering if I could talk to you about some options I have for dealing with physical and emotional abuse. Thank you.’
On March 22, Const. DH wrote to H: ‘Good morning. What can I do to help you? How old are you too?’
H to Const DH: ‘Hello, I hope you are doing well. I have been abused all my life and I have had enough. But I don’t want the people who did this to me to go to jail. Even though what they did to me, I will never be the same. I can’t tell you my name or age.
March 24, 2022, Const DH to H: ‘Hi, I understand the situation… but I need information… so I can investigate it properly. Can you give me a time when you could be present? [nearby] Police station please.”
H’s response: “Please forget I said anything. I thought I deleted the message. Thanks anyway.’
On March 29 around 8 p.m., H’s 16-year-old sister heard her father yelling at someone and grabbed a tablet computer to record audio of the outburst.
She saw S get angry with 13-year-old K because you didn’t clean something. K cried. S said, “See why you’re a pig? Tell me what you are!’
K replied: ‘A pig’. S replied, “You had no intention of ever cleaning it up, next time I’ll kill you, do you understand?”
On April 4, 2022, H wrote to Const DH: “Hey, I hope you’re doing well. I have a question for you. How much evidence do you need to prove child abuse and domestic violence?’
The now abandoned property had sewage running through the bathroom/kitchen and the children were reportedly fed leftovers and dressed in donated rags
April 13, H to Const DH: ‘I wonder if voice recordings, videos and photographs are sufficient to prove child abuse/domestic violence?’
Police were present at the family home for welfare checks from early March, but the abuse continued.
In late April 2022, SH confronted her during dinner and took her to the bedroom.
“I’m not going to kill you because I don’t want you coming at me,” he said.
“But I hate you and I can’t stand you. Grab your things and leave… Do you want me to hit you, or are you leaving?’
H replied, “I don’t care what you do to me.”
On June 17, 2022, two senior officers visited the family home.
While two of the older girls denied that anything was wrong, or that they had sent emails to police documenting the abuse, the 16-year-old sister eventually relented.
She told one of the officers: ‘My parents abuse us all, they hurt us and don’t let us do anything… all our lives.
‘Not so much lately for us older kids, but I can’t take it anymore. Can you help us?’
S and C were arrested. Originally charged with more than 60 crimes in total, they prepared for trial.
However, C pleaded guilty earlier this year to a limited list of multiple domestic violence charges.
The father will be sentenced at Downing Center Local Court on December 17.