FBCSO: 7 special needs children kept in horrific conditions

RICHMOND, TEXAS - A Richmond couple has been charged with keeping seven special needs children locked up in a filthy bedroom of their home for more than a decade.

Paula Sinclair, 54, and Allen Richardson, 78, were arrested Saturday by Fort Bend County deputies. Both are charged with aggravated kidnapping and injury to a child.

The children, ages 13 to 16, are being treated for malnourishment, dehydration, bed bug bites and other issues. Investigators say they were fed only rice and beans twice a day since they were babies.

One of the children suffers from Down Syndrome and was wearing a dirty diaper when he was removed from the home.

The children were rescued from the home in the Long Meadow Farm subdivision two days before Thanksgiving. All seven were found locked in a room on the second-story of the large home.

“Smelled of feces and urine. The carpet was being pulled up in some places exposing sharp metal tacks,” said Fort Bend County Detective Julie Johnson.

The children weren't allowed to leave the house, had never been treated by doctors or allowed to go to school, according to Fort Bend County investigators.

If Sinclair left the home, the children were locked in a closet, roughly five feet by eight feet. The closet already had clothes and boxes inside, so space was even smaller, and quite often the adults were gone so long that the children would urinate on themselves, the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office said.

“They were told that if they came out of the room or out of the locked closet, they would be physically abused,” Detective Johnson said.  (Click to Continue)

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FBCSO: 7 special needs children kept in horrific conditions