Couple jailed for 10 years for locking up four adopted children in basement without food, beds or a toilet for 22 hours a day and beating them with a paddle

• David and Rejeana Moss pleaded guilty to endangering the four children 
• Adopted children were only allowed out of the room for two hours a day 
• They had no food, beds or proper toilet while they were in the basement 
• They were beaten 10 times with a paddle for every homework mistake 
• One son left the house as an adult and informed child services of the abuse
• But his two teenager sisters and disabled adult brother were not removed for another four years, when the girls escaped and crashed a car
• Mosses pleaded guilty to child endangerment and were jailed for 10 years 

By OLLIE GILLMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS

A couple have been jailed for 10 years for keeping their four adopted children locked up in a basement without food, beds or a toilet for 22 hours a day.

David and Rejeana Moss pleaded guilty to endangering the children from 2009 to 2013, as well as assault.

The pair, aged 60 and 66, would lock the four children in the basement at their home in Dorset Township, Ohio, for most of the day, only letting them out briefly to go to the bathroom and do homework.

If the children needed to use the bathroom while they were locked inside the cellar, they were forced to use a metal bucket. 

One of the two teenage girls held captive by the Mosses told a court in Ashtabula County that they would be beaten with a paddle 10 times for every mistake they made on their homework.

Investigators discovered a blood-stained paddle at the home when they removed the children from their home in 2013.

As well as the two teenage girls, two boys - who are now adults and of whom one is disabled - were living at the property, the Star Beacon reported.

Daily Mail Online has decided not to name the four adopted children.

Ashtabula County Prosecutor Nick Iarocci said living conditions inside the home were 'deplorable'. 

The children were allowed out of their rooms for only two hours a day to use the bathroom and do homework, authorities said. 

Bedroom windows were boarded up and covered with curtains stapled to the frames so the children could not see outside. 

One of the children made notches in a bedpost to keep track of what day it was, according to the Star Beacon. 

The Mosses told the authorities they were home-schooling the children, but the teenagers said this did not happen.  

The couple took a plea deal that saw them admit half of the abuse charges.

The adopted man who is not disabled reported the pair to the authorities in 2009, after he left the home. 

He showed child services a diary which detailed the abuse, but he claimed officials failed to act for four years.

The remaining three adopted children were freed in 2013, a month after the two girls - then aged 17 and 14 - tried to escape by stealing their parents' car, but crashed it into a tree. 

It is not clear if the house was ever investigated by officials. 

In an impact statement, the man who went to the authorities said the abuse he had suffered at the hands of the Mosses had left him scarred mentally, with anxiety and depression affecting his ability to get a job. 

'With all the above-named issues and the Mosses putting me down emotionally, I lose faith in myself, confidence - I get overwhelmed,' he wrote in an impact statement.

The older adopted daughter wrote in her statement to the court that she was once beaten 300 times with a paddle for making mistakes on her homework. 

'It was 30 papers. When they were done, there was blood on the paddle. It was horrible. They gave me 300 spankings. I hated them so much,' she said.

The teenager also said she and her younger sister were sometimes attacked by Rejeana Moss for no apparent reason.

'Thank God it's over,' the younger girl said. 

David Moss, who openly wept in court, said in a statement read by his attorney that he was 'sorry that my failure has continued to burden these children's lives'.

'Knowing it was my lack of ability to parent these children with all these special needs has been very disheartening,' he added.

His wife said she 'never wanted to hurt any child'. 

'I am sorry that these children have been hurt in any way by me. I hope and pray they find peace and full lives as I have tried and failed to do.'

She said 'the past is always more clear than the situation at-hand', adding that she had thought long and hard about the mistakes she had made.

The couple's attorneys said the pair were too harsh when disciplining the children, but insisted they did not live in a 'house of horrors'. 

Tania Burnett, executive director of Ashtabula County Children Services Board, said she thought her case workers 'did an awesome job'.