Newly released video shows the malnourished son of a parenting advice YouTuber approaching a neighbor for help on the morning that his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges.

The malnourished and badly bruised son of a parenting advice YouTuber politely asks a neighbor to take him to the nearest police station in newly released video from the day his mother and her business partner were arrested on child abuse charges in southern Utah.

The 12-year-old son of Ruby Franke, a mother of six who dispensed advice to millions via a popular YouTube channel, had escaped through a window and approached several nearby homes until someone answered the door, according to documents released Friday by the Washington County Attorney’s office.

Crime scene photos, body camera video and interrogation tapes were released a month after Franke and business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, a mental health counselor, were each sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. A police investigation determined religious extremism motivated the women to inflict horrific abuse on Franke’s children, Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke announced Friday.

“The women appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined ‘sins’ and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies,” Clarke said.

  • bluewing
    46·
    8 months ago

    As some one who doesn’t practice any religion, even I think it makes little sense to argue with atheists these days. Atheism has become the new opiate of the masses.

    Extremest beliefs, no matter what those beliefs are, is a bad thing. And those who are at the extremes will tend to doing evil things in the name of their belief.

    • TK420@lemmy.world
      21·
      8 months ago

      You can believe whatever the fuck you want in the comfort of your head. Pushing it onto others as if it were true is another….which is what theists do, and some of us are fucking sick and tired of it.