The 'House of Horrors' parents who shackled some of their 13 children to beds and starved them have pleaded guilty to charges of torture and abuse.

David Allen Turpin and his wife Louise Anna Turpin were arrested after their 17-year-old daughter escaped from their home outside Los Angeles and alerted police.

She was one of 13 siblings, aged between two and 29-year-old who had been starved and abused at the house, later dubbed the ‘House of Horrors.’

The parents have today pleaded guilty to 14 counts including abusing minor and adult children and imprisoning them in their house.

David Turpin sits in a courtroom Friday, 22-02-2019. Image: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said the guilty pleas were part of a deal which will mean the children will not have to testify.

He said the pair are facing 25 years in prison.

Louise Turpin sits in a courtroom Friday, 22-02-2019. Image: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool

The children were severely underweight and had not washed for months when they were found.

Investigators said some of the children had stunted growth and wasted muscles, and told officers they had been beaten, starved and put in cages.

House of Horrors

In a recording of an emergency call played to the court, the girl who managed to escape told police two of her younger sisters and a brother were chained to the beds and said she could not take it any longer.

She said: "They will wake up at night and they will start crying and they wanted me to call somebody.

"I wanted to call y'all so y'all can help my sisters."

The Turpin family

The 13 Turpin children had lived in such isolation that some of them did not know what the role of police was when they arrived to help them.

When police arrived, two girls, aged 11 and 14, had been released from their shackles but a 22-year-old man remained chained up.

He said he and his siblings had been suspected of stealing food and being disrespectful, according to a detective in court.

Severe malnutrition

One investigator testified that some of them suffered severe malnutrition and muscle wasting, saying one 11-year-old girl had arms the size of an infant.

All the children were taken to hospital when they were discovered, and Riverside County authorities have taken temporary conservatorship over the adults. The children are in child protection agencies.

The parents will be sentenced on April 19th.

With additional reporting from IRN ...