YouTube mom who gave parenting advice, Ruby Franke, pleads guilty in child abuse case
A Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice on YouTube pleaded guilty Monday to child abuse charges and will go to prison for trying to convince her two youngest children they were evil, possessed and needed to be punished to repent.
Ruby Franke stood shackled in gray and white jail clothing as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before pleading guilty to each of her first three charges. On the fourth, she fought back some emotion before saying: “With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty.”
Judge John J. Walton scheduled sentencing for Feb. 20 after accepting the plea agreement, which described new details of the abuse the children endured, including the claims that they were possessed. Under the plea agreement, Franke agreed to serve a prison term and the sentences will run consecutively. Sentencing would be up to the judge.
Franke pleaded not guilty to two other counts, court records said, and was returned to custody after the hearing.
Under Utah law, second-degree aggravated child abuse can be charged if that person knowingly or intentionally inflicts serious physical injury to a child or causes or permits another to inflict serious physical injury to their child. Each charge carries a sentence of one to 15 years in prison.
Winward Law said in a statement Friday that the abuse occurred while Franke was influenced by a relationship counselor who led her to “a distorted sense of morality.”
In the plea agreement, Franke admits that she tortured her son from May 22 through Aug. 30 by forcing him into hours of physical tasks, summer work outdoors without adequate water and “repeated and serious sunburns” that blistered. He was denied food or given very plain meals, and he was isolated from other people without access to books, notebooks or electronics.
After he tried to run away in July, his hands and feet were regularly bound, sometimes with handcuffs.
At times, ropes were used to tie together handcuffs that secured his hands and feet as he lay on his stomach, lifting his arms and legs off the ground and injuring his wrists and ankles, the plea agreement said.
Franke also admitted to kicking her son while wearing boots, holding his head under water and smothering his mouth and nose with her hands, according to the plea agreement.
“He was also told that everything that was being done to him were acts of love,” the agreement states.
