Ruby Franke
, a
Utah mother
of six who gave parenting advice to millions via a once-popular a YouTube channel, shared a tearful apology to her children for physically and emotionally abusing them before a judge sentenced her Tuesday to serve up to 60 years in prison.
From May to Aug 2023, Franke, a mother of six, created a "concentration camp-like setting" for two of her children, who were 9 and 11 at the time.
She regularly denied them adequate food, water, entertainment and beds, and isolated them from others.
The children were forced to stand on hot concrete in the summer heat for hours and sometimes days at a time, and were beaten and regularly bound by their hands and feet. The injuries were so severe that the children required hospitalisation. "Had the older of the children not had the courage to run away and ask a neighbour to call the police, heaven only knows how much longer he could have survived in that situation," state prosecuting attorney Eric Clarke said.
Franke, who was known for documenting her strict parenting style on social media, was arrested Aug. 30 last year. Police said at the time that two of Franke's children appeared malnourished, and that one had open wounds, and duct tape on his ankles and wrists.
Franke was the host of a YouTube channel called "8 Passengers," which has since been removed from the platform. In the videos, she documented the lives of her six kids and chronicled her parenting strategies, which included punishing her children by withholding food. The channel had nearly 2.5 million subscribers before it was taken down. She expressed remorse on Tuesday and said that she took "full accountability" for the choices she had made.
English (US) ·