In the province of Girona in Catalonia, adult siblings have been trapped in a small house in the woods all their lives, according to Spanish media. The daily newspaper “El Punt Avui” and television SIC indicate that the parents are under investigation.
A 24-year-old woman and her 18-year-old brother have spent their lives isolated from society in a forest in Catalonia, northeast Spain. Describing on Thursday the drama of the daughter and son of a 58-year-old Dutchman, the media indicate that a foreigner residing in Spain imprisoned his children in a house located in a forest in the province of Girona.
“Throughout their lives, the siblings have had contact only with their parents,” Spanish daily El Punt Avui and SIC TV reported on Thursday, reporting that the siblings’ parents had been under investigation since March. They are accused of abuse, domestic violence and abandonment of their children.
According to the Spanish judiciary, siblings isolated from society are not adapted to independent life. It had no contact not only with the outside world, but also with television and the Internet.
Unusual meeting with a young woman
A Dutchman residing in Catalonia testified that he decided to put his children in the forest because of his wife’s alleged health problems. He stated that the isolation was necessary because the spouse “was allergic to radio waves and could not live near them.” Hence, the children, he said, had to live in the middle of the forest.
The case came to light in February after a 24-year-old ran away, who informed one resident of the region that “for the first time in her life she talks to a person outside her family” – and this is due to her father’s imprisonment at home. A resident of the province of Girona reported the unusual meeting with the young woman to the police.
During his testimony so far, the Dutchman explained that he had never abused his daughter, and that the harassment she has since told was a figment of her imagination and mental illness.
Main photo source: Reuters Archive