Earlier this year, the world was shocked when David and Louise Turpin were charged with imprisoning and torturing their 13 children in their California home. The children were only discovered after a 17-year-old daughter escaped and told police her siblings, aged between two and 29, were shackled and starved for years by their parents.
Reports at the time said the children were restricted to just one shower a year and that the Turpins would only feed their kids one small meal a day. The sister of Louise, Teresa Robinette, now claims she and her sibling were actually victims of sexual abuse as children.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Robinette described the abuse as a “dark secret” that has haunted her family and could be a reason why abuse has been repeated by her sister. She alleged her own mother knew about the abuse and sold her daughters to a wealthy paedophile for cash.
Robinette recalled the paedophile would pay her cash directly and would tell her to keep quiet when he was molesting her. She said her mother would force the siblings to visit the man.
“We begged her not to take us to him but she would simply say: ‘I have to clothe and feed you’. Louise was abused the worst,” she exclusively told The Sun. “He destroyed by self-worth as a child and I know he destroyed hers too.”
The dark twist is the subject of a new British documentary, Tortured By Mum and Dad? The Turpin 13. It questions whether Louise is a victim as well, given what her sister claims she went through as a child.
Still, Robinette doesn’t think her sister is a victim, explaining she knew what she was doing was wrong. She said her sister wouldn’t have tried to hide what she was doing if what she was doing wasn’t wrong.
It’s not the first time Robinette has spoken about the Turpins and their abuse. Understandably, many have questioned how family members such as Robinette didn’t know something sinister was going on within the family. She appeared in another documentary, The Turpin 13: Family Secrets Exposed, last month, where she gave her side of the story. She also told Fox News she was completely unaware of the twisted secrets her sister and brother-in-law kept.
“I was cleaning house, cooking dinner, doing my routine,” Robinette explained to Fox News. “And then [our sister] Elizabeth called. She told me to sit down… I looked at the news and I just – I don’t really know how to describe the feeling to you.”
She described the feeling as a nightmare and said she felt mad. As a result, she said she has been the subject of hate mail from people convinced she was involved or knew about the abuse.
“I didn’t want people to think I had something to hide,” Robinette said. “If we didn’t come forward, people would have felt like we knew things and we were attempting to cover them up because I’m her sister… But there’s no way we would have stood for that. That’s why she distanced herself from us.”
She claimed she never actually saw any children being abused, but noted the couple did isolate themselves away from the rest of the family She only ever met the older children and interacted with the younger kids through video chat.
Reports claim the 13 children were originally tied up with ropes years ago, before the couple upgraded to chains and padlocks when a child tried to escape. The Turpins were charged in January but have denied any wrongdoings. Meanwhile, all their children were rushed to hospital to recover after being discovered.