Turpin: 'House of horrors' father faces new charges

New charges have been laid against a Californian man accused of torturing and staving his 13 children.

David and Louise Turpin were charged with torture, false imprisonment, child abuse and cruelty after one of their emancipated children escaped out and window and called police in January.

The couple have been accused of only allowing the children – aged between 2 and 29 - to shower once a year, shackling them to furniture, restricting their toilet use and repeatedly beating them.

Charges against David Turpin were upgraded to include perjury on Friday.

The Riverside County district attorney's office have alleged he filed paperwork incorrectly claiming his children were enrolled in fulltime education at a private day school between 2010 and 2017, NBC reported.

Prosecutors allege all of the Turpin's children except the youngest, a toddler, were severely malnourished when police liberated them.

Officers and paramedics who were first on the scene reportedly mistook the eldest sibling, aged 29, for a child as she only weighed 37kg.

READ MORE: House of Horrors: Shackled children didn't understand what medicine was

Authorities said a 22-year-old was found chained to a bed when they arrived and the home reeked of human waste.

The father-of-thirteen did not enter a plea relating to the new charges.

He and his wife have both pleaded not guilty to the original charges.

They are due back in court on May 18.