US-German Couple Sentenced to Nearly Three Years in Spain for Isolating Children at Home After Developing Pandemic-Related Fear of Outside World

A US-German couple was sentenced to almost three years in prison in Spain on Monday for keeping their three children locked at home for three-and-a-half years after developing a fear of the outside world in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The father and mother were both found guilty of family abandonment and causing psychological harm but were cleared of more stringent charges of unlawful detention.

Prosecutors had sought 25 years in prison.

The couple have not been publicly identified to protect the identities of their children. Both parents are German citizens while the mother is also a citizen of the United States of America. They are parents to nine-year-old twins and an 11-year-old.

The children had been living for several years in inadequate sanitary conditions in a house on the outskirts of the northern city of Oviedo and had not been attending school. Police arrested the couple in April 2025. The couple have been held in preventive custody since their arrest in April 2025.

A little over a year after their initial arrests in April 2025, the couple have now been handed jail sentences on this Monday, May 11, 2026. The parents were ordered to pay compensation of 30,000 euros ($32,000) to each child. They were stripped of custody of the children for at least three years and four months.

Javier Muñoz, the lawyer for the mother, said the children were home schooled, had "a stable family life" and were well fed. Muñoz added that the couple were "moderately satisfied" with the sentence but were still considering appealing the ruling.