Major update on ‘Covid syndrome’ parents who kept children in ‘house of horror’ for four years

A couple who were jailed after keeping their children locked indoors for four years amid fears they would contract Covid have reportedly been freed.

Christian Steffen, 54, and his wife Melissa, 49, are already working to regain custody of their three kids who were held captive at their detached home in northern Spain, their lawyer has claimed.

The parents appealed their prison sentences which were handed down to them earlier this year, and a High Court has now agreed to overturn their convictions for the most severe charge that prosecutors waged against them.

In April last year, Oviedo Police Chief Javier Lozano announced that two eight-year-old twins and a 10-year-old had been rescued by authorities from what he described as a 'house of horrors'.

Officials said that the youngsters had been forbidden from going outside since 2021. Reports claimed that a concerned neighbour reported the Steffen family to police after noticing the children were not going to school.

It is said that German tech recruiter Christian and Melissa, who was born in the US, feared that they would contract the Covid-19 virus.

The property in northern Spain was described as a 'house of horrors' by police (PABLO LORENZANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Officers said the property was 'quite full' - as rubbish, medications and face masks were littered around, while there were also 'boxes everywhere'.

Images of inside the home show small cribs that the children slept in covered with scribbles of monsters sporting sharp teeth, as well as other doodles. There was reportedly also ‘defaced dolls’ found.

It was revealed that the three siblings did not appear to be suffering from any illness, despite their mother Melissa telling cops to 'be very careful' with her kids when they turned up, warning officers they were 'very sick'.

"The children were in terrible shape, it was absolutely outrageous," Lozano said at the time, as per Spanish media outlet El Mundo. "Not malnourished, because they were fed.

"But they were also dirty, and kidnapped, completely cut off from reality, and not just because they didn't go to school.

"When we took them out of the house, into the garden, where they wouldn't even go outside, they saw a snail and went crazy."

Kids were 'hunched over with bowed legs'

Further details about the harrowing conditions that the three young children, who wore nappies and slept in cots, were living in then emerged when their parents went on trial in March.

Christian and Melissa moved to Spain from Germany and decided not to send their children to school due to their 'insurmountable fears' that they could catch Covid, their legal representatives said previously.

But prosecutors claimed the couple weren't just over-protective parents - as ahead of their trial, details of the physical state of the three children emerged, according to the Daily Mail.

The kids slept in cots which were covered in scribbles (Police Handout)(Police Handout)

Their offspring were 'locked up inside the home and isolated completely from the rest of the world', prosecutors said, according to the publication.

As well as 'denying them contact with other people both physically and through other forms of communication', the mother and father were accused of allowing them to live in physical distress.

"The children walked hunched over, with bowed legs, had difficulty going up and down stairs, and had irritated skin and onychomycosis," prosecutors said previously.

"One of them had a slight stoop. When they went outside, once their situation had been discovered, the children were surprised by their surroundings.

"As a result of these events, the children suffer from social dystocia, which will delay their incorporation into social relationships appropriate for their age."

Following their trial earlier this year, Christian and Melissa were convicted of domestic violence with habitual psychological abuse in May 2024 and sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison by the Provincial Court of Asturias.

Two twins, who are now aged nine, and their 11-year-old sibling were rescued from the home last year (Police Handout)

The couple maintained that they acted in the best interests of their children and launched an appeal - and on Monday (13 July), the High Court of Justice of Asturias (TSJA) ruled in their favour.

Christian and Melissa were acquitted of 'habitual psychological violence within the family environment', which was the heftiest conviction they were slapped with. They were also found guilty of child abandonment.

The dad's legal representative said in wake of their legal win: "They are happy, but they have received a lot of criticism.

"They had already expected a ruling like this beforehand, so the first feeling was relief, but the next was great concern about how they are going to regain contact with and custody of their children."

Public prosecutors have the opportunity to appeal the latest court decision.

Regional Social Rights and Welfare Minister Marta del Arco said officials are still helping the kids on their road to recovery.

According to The Sun, he warned that the 'trauma' they experienced was 'bound to surface later on', while adding: "Both educators and psychologists are working very intensively with them because they really need it."