A American YouTuber who exposed his family life and promoted strict behavioral practices was sentenced to prison for mistreating her children. The woman kept two of them in conditions that prosecutors compared to those in concentration camps.
It will be the Utah Board of Pardons and Paroles who determines the prison sentence, while the mother of six children who gave motherhood advice to millions of people through a YouTube channel, has 30 days to appeal the decision.
Who is Ruby Frankie, the youtuber who abused her children
Ruby Franke, 42 years old and mother of six, it was declaredor guilty in December of four counts of child abuse with aggravated circumstances and on Tuesday she was sentenced to sentences of between one and 15 years in prison for each charge.
Franke’s partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, 54-year-old, whom he described as his “mentor,” received the same sentence. Both gave advice for parents through the now defunct channel “8 Passengers”, and in August of last year they were arrested after one of her children, apparently malnourished, ran away to ask neighbors for help.
Authorities also found Franke’s other 10-year-old daughter malnourished at her partner’s house. Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced this Tuesday.
The beginning of the youtuber mother
Since 2015, Franke has been running a YouTube channel called “8 Passengers”, which has since been eliminated, in which he portrayed the daily life of his family and promoted strict educational standards. She would later appear on a YouTube channel run by Hildebrandt, after separating from her husband.
Utah Attorney Eric Clarke said Franke and Hildebrandt kept two of the childrens, who were then 9 and 11 years old, in a “concentration camp-like environment.”
“To the childrenand were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually any form of entertainment,” Clarke stated. “They were isolated from others and hidden when people came to visit the house,” she added.
“I also knowThey were forced to do manual labor outdoors in the extreme heat of the summer, sometimes without shoes or socks,” the prosecutor said. “Both children had extensive physical injuries from the abuse that required hospitalization.”
The emotional abuse of the youtuber mother
clarke also noted that the children were emotionally abused, “to the point that each one believed, to some extent, that they deserved what was being done to them.” Finally, the older man “had the courage” to run away and ask a neighbor to call the police, Clarke said, adding: “God only knows how much longer they could have survived in that situation.”
Franke apologized for his actions at his sentencing hearing before Judge John Walton. “I was made to believe that this world was an evil place full of police who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and covet, husbands who refuse to protect, and children who need abuse,” declared.
Franke claimed his paranoia “culminated in criminal activity” and that she was “willing to be held accountable.” Franke and Hildebrandt will serve a minimum of four years in prison, but the Utah Board of Pardons and Paroles will decide their exact sentences.
Source: Ambito
