Inside Mexico’s house of horrors: Harrowing images emerge of foster children behind bars as officials say victims slept on rat-infested floors and were fed rotten food

·        Relatives say workers demanded ransoms to free children kept there

·        Prosecutors say residents told them they were beaten, raped and starved

·        Nine suspects have been detained by police, including the owner

Youths freed from a refuse-strewn boarding house by Mexican federal police were sexually abused and held to ransom by staff, say relatives and officials.

Parents said they tried to remove their children from the Casa de la Gran Familia in Zamora, Michoacan, western Mexico, but were met with demands for thousands of dollars for their release.

And authorities said residents, including children, told them they were forced into having sex with workers at the home, beaten, starved and locked in a small cell as punishment for rule breaking.

Ten of the residents were so malnourished police couldn't even determine their age. 

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Children rest in one of the rooms of the La Gran Familia in Zamora, Michoacan State, Mexico, after the federal police raid which rescued 607 adults and children who prosecutors said were kept in deplorable conditions

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A view of the interior yard of La Gran Familia, piled up with filthy mattresses. Officials said the residents suffered beatings and sexual abuse, and were forced to sleep on the floor among rats, ticks and fleas

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What appear to be donated shoes are lined up in one of the rooms of La Gran Familia, which had been a well-respected care institution part-funded by the government and visited by politicians and dignitaries

Mainly poor parents and other relatives gathered outside the home last night as a truck hauled away about 20 tons of rubbish from what authorities said was an insect-infested shelter that had housed 607 adults and children.

Maria Valdivia Vasquez, 65, waited to be allowed to see her 17-year-old grandson, Jose Antonio Martinez. She told the Associated Press his mother sent him to The Great Family group home a decade ago because of his bad behaviour.

 

Relatives were allowed to visit him only twice a year, and shelter employees had recently been sitting in on the visits, apparently to monitor residents' comments, she told the news agency.

Mrs Valdivia Vasquez said that when she decided to ask that the boy be released to her, shelter founder Rosa del Carmen Verduzco, known as 'Mama Rosa', demanded 70,000 pesos ($5,400; £3,200) for his release.

She said Jose Antonio often barely spoke in front of the shelter employees, but once told her 'he wanted his mother to suffer the same thing he was suffering there.'  

Horror images reveal squalid refuge of 458 Mexican children

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Reproduction of an image of squalid conditions at La Gran Familia shown in a press conference in Mexico City

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Makeshift beds where residents of the home slept, reproduced from a picture shown at the press conference

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Bundles of cardboard and other refuse are hauled out to a rubbish truck outside Gran Familia

Mexican federal police swooped on La Casa de la Gran Familia on Tuesday, after parents filed complaints with authorities because they were being stopped form seeing their children.

One was a woman who had two babies at the home. But after she was allowed to leave, the owner allegedly kept the youngsters, which were registered under the owner's name.

The police raid freed six babies under three, 154 girls, 278 boys, 50 women and 109 men who officials said were kept in deplorable conditions, fed rotten food and forced to sleep on the floor among rats, ticks and fleas.

Nine employees of the shelter, which acted as a foster home of sorts, have been detained and are being questioned.

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A girl standing amongst relatives waiting to be reunited with their children, stands just inside a police cordon around La Gran Familia. Relatives said staff demanded ransoms in exchange for releasing residents

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A woman sobs as she waits to be allowed to visit her child. Despite the horrors Mexican authorities were keeping residents at the home while they worked out where they can be transferred to

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Maria Isabel Blancas Gonzalez holds her 16-year-old daughter's teddy bear, as she waits to be reunited with her

Raquel Briones Gallegos, a 44-year-old housewife, said she tried to get her 20-year-old son, Luis Oropeza Briones, out of the shelter in April.

'They ran me out of the house and said insulting things,' she told the Associated Press. He would call her on the phone in recent months saying that 'he wanted to leave, to please get him out of there,' she said.

Residents were still being kept at the home while officials look for places to transfer them. Federal authorities said they were ensuring that the residents were being fed properly, and were giving medical help.

Police and soldiers standing guard outside let small groups of relatives in for brief visits. For some families, it was their first time inside in months.

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Police stand guard around the home as onlookers and relatives wait for a chance to visit their loved ones

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Relatives wait to be reunited with their children. Nine employees of the shelter are being questioned

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Mexican federal police swooped on La Casa de la Gran Familia on Tuesday, after parents filed complaints with authorities because they were being stopped from seeing their children. Now they are waiting to be let in

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A woman talks to a heavily armed federal policeman outside Gran Familia yesterday afternoon

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An official tries to decide which relatives to take into Gran Familia next to see their children

Prosecutors said early statements given by residents described sexual abuse, beatings, hunger and filth in a once well-regarded group home.

Some were forced into sex by shelter employees and others told of being locked in a tiny punishment room without food or water, officials said.

'Victim No. 4 said she had been held in the group home against her will since she was 18,' said Tomas Zeron, federal chief of criminal investigations.

'She was sexually abused by one of the administrators, and got pregnant as a result of the abuse. The same person beat her to cause an abortion, beating her in the stomach on several occasions.'

Two boys told investigators a male staff member had forced them to engage in oral sex and warned one of the boys that 'he would kill him and sell his organs if he refused,' said Mr Zeron.

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A police officer walks inside the entrance to Gran Familia, where investigators taking initial statements say residents have complained of beatings, rapes, sexual assaults and starvation at the hands of staff

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Relatives were waiting into the night to get a chance to see their children, who are being treated by doctors and interviewed by investigators trying to piece together a picture of what was going on inside Gran Familia

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For some families, it was their first time inside in months

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said some other employees apparently tried to protect the children.

'There are statements that truly hurt, that make you angry,' he said. 'But there are others that save your faith in humanity, about those who truly converted themselves into protectors of the children.'

Authorities have said the shelter had been highly regarded and the government sometimes gave money or even entrusted children to the shelter.

It was often visited by politicians, and local media published photographs of the owner with former President Vicente Fox, former Michoacan Governor Leonel Godoy and other officials.

Mr Murillo Karam said the home was subject to government oversight, but the 'institution's prestige may have made the inspections less intense.'