YouTuber Ruby Franke, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison over child abuse, told the court in the US that she was deceived by a "dark delusion". The 42-year-old pleaded guilty in December to four counts of aggravated child abuse and was sentenced on Tuesday to one-to-15 years in prison on each charge. Franke's business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, whom she described as her "mentor," received the same sentence. She became famous after offering parenting advice, which drew millions of subscribers to her now-deleted YouTube channel '8 Passengers'.
She broke down in court on Tuesday when prosecution described the "concentration camp-like" child abuse.
"I was led to believe the world was an evil place. For the past four years, I have chosen to follow counsel and guidance that have led me to a dark delusion," Franke said.
Time Magazine said that Franke started her YouTube channel in 2015, which centred around her parenting style. She shared snippets of life with her husband and their six children - Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell and Eve.
Among the most concerning content from her videos was on how she used to discipline her children. In one of the videos in 2020, she said her son Chad has been sleeping on a beanbag for seven months. This caused a petition to be filed on change.org and personnel of Division of Child and Family Services in Utah to be sent to her home. But the investigation was closed because "the claims were unsupported".
Another video showed Franke refusing to bring her daughter's lunch to school after the then six-year-old forgot it. In the now-deleted video, Time quoted her as saying, "Eve is responsible for making her own lunches in the morning, so the natural outcome is she is just going to be hungry. And hopefully, nobody gives her food, and nobody steps in and gives her lunch."
The abuse was discovered in August 2023, when Franke was arrested on child abuse charges. This happened when her 12-year-old son jumped out of a window in the home and ran to a neighbour's house for help, as per NBC News.
The boy was found malnourished and with duct tape on open wounds.
After Franke's arrest, her oldest daughter Shari had uploaded an Instagram story in which she said, "Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We've been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up. The kids are safe, but there's a long road ahead."
