A Spanish court sentenced Christian Steffen, 54, and Melissa Ann Steffen, 49, each to two years and 10 months in prison on May 11 for keeping their three children locked inside a home in Oviedo, Spain, for over three years out of an extreme fear of COVID-19.
The Provincial Court of Asturias found both parents guilty of domestic violence with habitual psychological abuse and child abandonment, sentencing them to two years and four months on the abuse charge and four months for abandonment.
Prosecutors had sought 25 years in prison, but both parents were acquitted of the illegal detention charge. Their defense argued during the closed-door March trial that the confinement was voluntary isolation driven by the fear both parents felt after contracting COVID-19, according to People.
Beyond the prison terms, the court barred the Steffens from exercising parental rights over their children for three years and four months and prohibited any contact with or approach within 980 feet of them. Each parent was also ordered to pay their children €30,000, equivalent to over $35,000, and cover two-fifths of court costs.
Police rescued the children — 8-year-old twin boys and a 10-year-old boy — from their Oviedo home on Apr. 28, 2025, after a neighbor reported that the children had not been attending school since 2021.
Officers found the home filled with garbage, medications, and masks, with the children sleeping in caged cribs, forced to wear diapers, and wearing up to three face masks stacked on top of one another. When police arrived, the mother insisted the children were "very sick," though medical evaluation found no serious illness, the Telegraph reported.
Investigators concluded the parents suffered from what they described as "Covid syndrome" — a psychological condition involving an irrational, persistent fear of the virus long after restrictions had been lifted.
Spain had ended COVID-19 restrictions in March 2022, yet the family, who relocated from Germany to Oviedo in October 2021, continued their self-imposed lockdown for nearly four additional years.
When the children were first brought outside during the rescue, they reportedly knelt to touch the grass, overwhelmed by the sensation.
The three children were placed under the care of the Ministry of Welfare and are currently receiving treatment from psychologists, as per WBZNewsRadio.
