(Newser)
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Texas authorities have removed 11 children, some bound and injured, from a group home where at least one known sex offender was living. Eight children were kept in a single bedroom with plywood covering the only window; authorities found two 2-year-old children and a 5-year-old girl tied to filthy mattresses, a welfare worker has testified. The little girl is legally blind, and "appeared to be in a daze," said the worker. Some ten adults were also living in the crowded home. The children ranged in age from five months to 11, two of the youngest appeared to be suffering from pneumonia, and another had a black eye and a knocked-out tooth, reports AP.
Adults in the house said the children were tied at night or during naps for their "safety," but one child reported being kept in the room for days at a time, said the welfare worker. All of the children have been placed in foster care, and a criminal investigation is continuing. “Our primary concern was to make sure that the children were stable and safe,” said an official. The crowded home is owned by the mother of Mark E. Marsh III, who was convicted in Michigan of criminal sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl, reports CBS. He has listed the Dayton home as his residence on the state's online sex offender registry. His mother was investigated in 2009 after authorities received a report that she had punched a child in the house, which includes a number of curtained outbuildings in the backyard. Police haven't revealed the identities of the parents of all the children. The address was also home to two 16-year-old runaway boys who had heard the house "was fun," according to court testimony.
