Old couple lock and Starved seven children almost to death for more than a decade

Horrified police found seven children with special needs locked up in a single, filthy room where they had been starved, beaten and held captive.

The victims, aged 14 to 16-years-old, were in a terrible physical state and described as malnourished, dehydrated and covered in bites.

They had not been let out of the house, or rarely even out of the room, for at least a decade, police in Houston, Texas, said.

Paula Sinclair, 54, and Allen Richardson, 78, were arrested and have been charged with aggravated kidnapping and injury to a child.

Sinclair had adopted all of the children from the state as babies and was being paid a monthly income to care for them.

The wicked woman even gave a newspaper interview in 2007 saying: "I do what I do because it is a gift that God has given me.

Each second, a child is being abused somewhere, and I am here to help them have a life."

But secretly, the children were living a life of unimaginable hardship, police say.

The children hadn't seen a doctor, been to school, or even left the house as far as anyone is aware for at least a decade.

One of the teenage children has Down's Syndrome and was found to be wearing a dirty nappy.

The room stank of faeces and urine, was covered in dirty clothes and bags and was exposed to mould.

Police said when Sinclair left the house she would lock the children in a wardrobe for hours at a time, where they were cramped in with clothes and would often wet themselves.

There was no doorknob on the inside and the children were threatened with violence if they escaped

The victims were taken into hospital after being rescued last week.

Old couple lock and Starved seven children almost to death for more than a decade