The children were said to be living “like livestock” in the run-down property
Gary Siders Sr has been deemed unfit to stand trial(Image: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail)
An elderly man in Ohio has been ruled unfit to stand trial after officers found 16 of his grandchildren living in squalor in his home.
Cops swarmed the run-down three-and-a-half square metre home in June this year where 16 “feral” children were found living “like livestock” among “human waste”.
It is said many of the children, aged between 18 months to 18 years, couldn’t talk, weren’t enrolled in school, and neighbours said they’d never even seen them.
The 73-year-old grandfather, Gary Siders Senior, 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 kilometres) south of Columbus.
He 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”, reports The Express.
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’ wife, Christina Siders; son Gary Siders Jr, and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Siders, the children’s mother, have pleaded not guilty.
Court records show that 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.
Since then Elizabeth has been pregnant most years.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described the shocking conditions the children were found in as ‘pure evil’.
