A Utah woman who ran a popular parenting advice YouTube channel was sentenced to prison for child abuse.
Ruby Franke was arrested last year along with her friend Jodi Nan Hildebrandt following the former’s malnourished son ran away to ask neighbors for help.
Authorities also found Franke’s other 10-year-old daughter malnourished at her partner’s house.
The two women, who pleaded guilty, were sentenced to serve four sentences of 1 to 15 years in prison each.
The sentences will run consecutively and are the maximum for each charge under Utah law. The state parole board will determine how much time each will serve.
In court, Utah prosecutor Eric Clarke said two of Franke’s children lived in an “environment similar to a concentration camp” and called it a significant threat to the community.
“Children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in and virtually all forms of entertainment,” Clarke said.
In court, Franke apologized to her children and said, “I was so disoriented that I believed darkness was light and right was wrong.”
“I was made to believe that this world was an evil place, full of police who control, hospitals that hurt, government agencies that brainwash, religious leaders who lie and are lustful, husbands who refuse to protect, and children who need abuse,” he assured.
Ruby Franke (right) and Jodi Nan Hildebrandt (left) appeared together in YouTube videos. Youtube Connections
What did Ruby Franke do?
The women were arrested in August 2023 following Franke’s 12-year-old son climbed out of a window and ran to a neighbor’s house to ask for food and water.
“The person who called [el vecino] I declare that the youngest seemed emaciated and malnourishedwith open wounds and adhesive tape around the extremities,” a statement from the Santa-Clara Ivins Department of Public Safety then explained.
“Upon arrival, the authorities observed that the injuries and malnutrition of [el chico] “They were serious,” the statement said.
The child had to be taken to the hospital “due to the deep lacerations he had from being tied with a rope and his malnutrition.” Ruby Franke’s 10-year-old daughter also had to receive medical attention.
Authorities later obtained a search warrant in connection with the incident, and in total, four children were placed in the care of Family and Children Services, according to the release.
Strict parenting
The blogger was criticized for the strict parenting measures she described on her channel. Youtube Connections
Franke, 42, became famous on YouTube in 2015 for her channel “8 Pasajeros,” in which she talked regarding raising her six children.
The channel had more than 2 million subscribers before being deactivated in 2022, the year in which Franke separated from her husband.
In the past, the blogger had faced criticism for the strict parenting measures she described on the channelsuch as his son’s claim that he slept in a bean bag for several months as punishment and Franke’s description of meal deprivation as another disciplinary measure.
The bean bag incident led some viewers to call local child protective servicesalthough Ruby Franke claimed that the incident had been taken out of context.
It had also appeared in YouTube videos posted by Hildebrandt, a life coach and advisor, on her ConneXions Classroom website.
In one of those videos, posted on May 10, 2022, Franke described herself as Hildebrandt’s “sidekick” and wondered why so many children suffered from depression.
“I never expected my second grader to come home and say so-and-so has anxiety and so-and-so has depression,” she said. “Something is wrong. This is not OK”.
Away from the camera, Franke’s children were being subjected to harsh abuse.
These included tying them up, hitting and kicking them, neglecting to feed them and forcing them to work outdoors in the summer without sunscreen, resulting in severe sunburns, according to police records.
In a plea agreement, Hildebrandt stated that he tortured the children or was aware of the abuse and that he forced one of Ruby Franke’s daughters to “jump into a cactus several times.”
Through his lawyer, Franke’s ex-husband, Kevin Franke, asked before the hearing that the maximum sentence be imposed and described the abuse suffered by his children as “horrible and inhumane.”
BBC
Click here to read more stories from BBC News World.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
