Report: Kids in Bathroom Suffered Horrific Abuse

Authorities said three emaciated children found in a Dallas motel bathroom this month were kept there day and night for almost a year, maybe longer.

One of the children said she thought they had been in the motel bathroom since October, but investigators do not know whether she was referring to 2007 or 2008, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The children, ages 6, 10 and 11, were in a hospital for 10 days after they were found July 2.

Court records detail the children's gruesome living conditions and awful abuse by the mother's boyfriend, the newspaper said.

The 11-year-old said her mother's boyfriend had been raping her for three years. She had told her mother about the sexual abuse several times, the newspaper reported.

The girl also said she and her siblings hoarded food because they would not be fed for days. The children vomited when Child Protective Services workers first tried to feed them.

The 10-year-old boy told investigators they were locked in the bathroom because their mother believed her boyfriend's accusations that the children had molested their youngest sister. He said they were not allowed around other children at first , then they were kept from going outside, before they eventually ended up in the bathroom.

His 11-year-old sister said they were only allowed out of the bathroom when their mother's boyfriend took a shower.

The 10-year-old boy said the man beat him and his mother. The boy was covered in bruises when the children were found.

The children were discovered after the mother's brother came to Texas from Ohio to check on them. The mother had told family members in Florida that her boyfriend was abusing her and had threatened to kill the children.

The uncle called for a police escort to the motel in the 8100 block of Stemmons Freeway where the family lived.

He told the Dallas Morning News that he "just broke down" when the emaciated children came out.

The uncle said he thinks police did the correct thing by arresting his sister.

"I'm sure she was being abused, but when you see the kids, something just hits you," he told the Dallas Morning News. "You don't know how another human being could let kids get to that point."

The 30-year-old mother faces a charge of injury to a child and is being held on $50,000 bail.

Her 37-year-old boyfriend faces charges of aggravated sexual assault and continuous sexual abuse. His bail is set at $125,000.

The three children, and their 1-year-old sibling, who appeared to be healthy, are in temporary foster care. Their uncle told the newspaper his mother wants custody of the children.