By Associated Press and Dail Mail Online Reporter

The 32-year-old mother pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison
Her 45-year-old boyfriend pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and one count of child endangering, and was sentenced to 25 years to life
Girl, 11, emailed her online teacher in January 2014 asking her to call 911
Children told case workers the adults tied them up, beat them with chains and starved them
Family put locks on refrigerator and cupboards to keep the children from stealing food
The two girls, aged 11 and 9, said they had been sexually assaulted
Two other children, an 8-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl – boyfriend’s sole biological child – also lived there

An Ohio mother and her boyfriend pleaded guilty Wednesday to raping her children, a year after one of her daughters emailed a teacher for help and said she and her siblings were being chained to their beds, starved and sexually assaulted.

The 32-year-old mother pleaded guilty in Scioto County to two counts of rape and was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison as part of a plea agreement.

Her 45-year-old boyfriend, a native of the Virgin Islands, who pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and one count of child endangering, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Victims: Children living in the Ohio home, all under the age of 13, told case workers the adults tied them up, beat them with chains and starved them

A grandmother also is charged. The Portsmouth Daily Times said the 53-year-old woman rejected plea offers and is scheduled to go on trial next week.

The case, described by Investigators as one of the worst they’ve ever seen, attracted national attention when the children were rescued in February 2014.

The three children revealed that the adults tied them to their beds for weeks at a time, beat their naked bodies with belts and paddles and kept food from them until one of them, an 11-year-old girl, emailed a teacher at her online school.

The girl, part of the Toledo-based Ohio Virtual Academy, asked the teacher to call 911 because she and her siblings were being ‘tied to the beds and beat,’ authorities said.

The teacher called police in late January, and child services case workers and officers were immediately dispatched to the family’s home in Wheelersburg, where they discovered four children under age 13.

Initially, the children denied that anything was amiss at home, so it was not until February that the adults were arrested and the young victims were removed from the home and placed in foster care.

The adults had been indicted on three counts each of child endangerment. The boyfriend also was charged with raping two of the children, girls ages 9 and 11.

Investigators said one of the adults admitted tying up the girls and their brother, who was 8, as punishment ‘because they were stealing food.’ Deputies said they found locks on the refrigerator and kitchen cupboards in the family’s home.

The grownups in the household wore keys to the fridge and cabinets around their necks, according to court records.

‘They tied these children up and refused to feed them, and when they found out they could get out of the ropes, they changed to chains — dog chains — and chained them to the bed,’ prosecutor Pat Apel said in court Wednesday.

By the time police raided the family’s home, most of the evidence, including dog chains, locks, ropes and belts, had been destroyed, reported the Columbus Dispatch.

A therapist who has treated the children testified that they were ‘almost feral’ after enduring about two years of abuse, which involved being tied up for weeks at a time, and released only to do their schoolwork online.

Scioto County sheriff’s Capt. David Hall has said the children had scars to match their stories.

The children suffered from nightmares and were hesitant to talk to case workers and psychologists for fear that their grandmother would kill them.

The youngest of the brood, a toddler girl who was the boyfriend’s sole biological child, was treated better by the family, according to investigators, compared to her older siblings.

The mother and her boyfriend risked life prison sentences without the possibility of parole if they had been convicted at trial next week.

The Daily Mail is not naming the defendants to protect the children’s identities because of the sexual nature of the crimes. .

IMAGES:
Guilty: An Ohio mother (left), 32, and her 45-year-old boyfriend (right) have pleaded guilty to rape charges involving the woman’s young children who were rescued from the home a year ago
Victims: Children living in the Ohio home, all under the age of 13, told case workers the adults tied them up, beat them with chains and starved them
Third defendant: A grandmother is charged in the abuse, but the 53-year-old woman rejected plea offers and is scheduled to go on trial
For more on this story go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2980189/Ohio-mom-boyfriend-guilty-child-emailed-teacher-help.html#ixzz3U5y3SqB7