A man whose 16 grandchildren were found living in a 'house of horrors' in Ohio has been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. Gary Siders Senior, 73, appeared in court in a wheelchair on Wednesday, with his attorney Dorian Baum telling the judge his mental health has been declining for years and is “not restorable.”
Declining Mental Health
Baum said: “It’s not really a surprise to any of us that he’s not been found competent at this point. He doesn’t fully understand or appreciate what’s going on.”
Siders was charged with 16 counts of child endangerment related to the children, who were rescued on June 30 from the home in Hamden, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) south of Columbus.
Other Family Members Plead Not Guilty
Siders’ wife, Christina Siders; son Gary Siders Jr; and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Siders, the children’s mother, have pleaded not guilty. Police found that the children were confined to mainly one small room under deplorable conditions.
The children ranged from 18 months to 18 years, with some unable to speak and described as 'feral'. They weren’t enrolled in school, the family moved around over the past two decades, and neighbours said they’d never spotted the kids.
Background and Conditions
The eldest child was born in May 2008, two months after Gary Siders Jr., then 18, and Elizabeth, then 15, crossed into West Virginia to marry at the Mason County Courthouse with her parents’ consent, according to court records. Documents show that Elizabeth has been pregnant most years since then.
At the time of their discovery police said that the children were 'kept in worse conditions than livestock'. All of them were cramped inside a ruined three-and-a-half square metre property that was covered in human waste. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described the shocking conditions as 'pure evil'.
