United States -- Four young children who could only communicate in grunts when they were discovered living in a feces-ridden home had been known to child welfare for more than a year, it has emerged.
Caseworkers and police officers had even visited the home in Denver, Colorado, but concluded the boys - who had to sleep on urine-soaked beds with no sheets - were 'fine', police reports show.
Records also reveal that there were previous child abuse convictions against the parents, while a lawyer who works opposite the apartment block said his complaints to child services were ignored.
The boys, aged two, four, five and six, were found living in horrendous conditions with their father, Wayne Sperling, 66, on September 29.
The children were not toilet trained, could only communicate using 'infant-like noises' and were so badly neglected it was impossible to tell which was the oldest, a police report noted.
Police checked on the home after the children's mother, Lorinda Bailey, sparked concern during a trip to the doctors and found two inches of cat feces under the bunk bed where the boys had slept.
Now it has emerged that the family was known to child welfare, but authorities would not comment on how the case slipped through the cracks for so long.
Bailey had previously lost her parental rights to three older children four years ago.
David Littman, a family law attorney working across the street from the apartment, called police and called child protective services last summer, as he saw the boys were often unclothed and unsupervised.
He said he never received a call about what had become of his complaint.
Denver County Department of Human Services officials said they could not discuss the case because of privacy laws.
Investigators were eventually called in last month after Bailey, 35, took the youngest child to a hospital for treatment to a cut to his forehead.
Although Ms Bailey lived in another part of the apartment block, she claimed to have seen her boys almost every day.
The child, who has not been named, was said by the emergency room doctor to have been unable to speak, was unwashed, and smelled of cigarette smoke.
Denver Police were called to make an welfare check on the other three other boys in the family's home.
The mother denied that her children had developmental problems and claimed they spoke to her without any difficulty. She also denied that the apartment was was unsafe or dirty.
None of the children attend school or daycare, and Sperling said that he was 'applying to home school' the six-year-old child.
The children were placed in protective custody and all four were given medical examinations.
When investigators returned to the home on September 30, they noticed attempts had been made to clean up, but described the smell as 'still overwhelming'.
Sperling and Bailey have been charged with four counts of felony child abuse. Bailey and Sperling are scheduled to return to court for a preliminary hearing October 29.
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