1 of 2 Ruby Franke was arrested in August last year after one of her children ran away looking for water and food Photo: @moms_of_truth/Via BBC Ruby Franke was arrested in August last year after one of her children ran away looking for water and food Water and food ran away was water and food Photo: @moms_of_truth/Via BBC
American YouTuber Ruby Franke known for sharing controversial parenting tips has been sentenced to at least four years in prison for child abuse.
Franke, 42, tearfully apologized as he heard the verdict in court.
She had previously pleaded guilty to abusing and starving her children.
The YouTuber's former partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, received the same punishment.
The judge sentenced the two to four prison terms of one to 15 years each.
The sentences must run consecutively and represent the maximum penalty for each charge under Utah law. How long each will serve in prison will be determined by the state parole board.
Franke has 30 days to appeal the decision.
In court, prosecutor Eric Clarke said two of her children, then ages 9 and 11, were living in a “concentration camplike environment” calling them a significant threat to the community.
“The children were regularly deprived of food, water, beds to sleep in and virtually any form of entertainment,” Clarke said.
Franke burst into tears after hearing the verdict. She apologized to her children, saying, “I was so disoriented that I believed darkness was light and right was wrong.”
“I was led to believe that this world was an evil place, full of cops who control, hospitals that hurt, government agencies that brainwash, religious leaders who lie and covet, husbands who refuse to protect and children in need of abuse,” he added.
The two women were arrested in August 2023 after Franke's malnourished 12yearold son escaped through the window of Hildebrandt's home in Ivins, Utah.
Police said the child ran to a neighbor's house looking for water and food. According to police records, he suffered cuts on his body because he was tied with a rope.
The arrests marked the end of a long and controversial career on YouTube.
Franke had more than 2 million subscribers on his channel 8 Passengers (a reference to the six children plus the couple), which was launched in 2015 as channels showing the daily lives of families became increasingly popular.
At the time, she told a local newspaper that making the videos with her family helped her “live in the present and just enjoy the kids.”
Their videos showed a typical Mormon family living in the American suburbs, homeschooling, cooking, eating and talking.
But in 2020, the broadcaster's followers became suspicious when one of the children mentioned that he was forced to sleep on a bean bag for seven months.
2 of 2 Ruby Franke (right) and Jodi Nan Hildebrandt appeared together in YouTube videos Photo: YouTube channel “Conexions”/Via BBC Ruby Franke (right) and Jodi Nan Hildebrandt appeared together in YouTube videos Photo: YouTube channel “Conexions” /About BBC
Viewers dug into the network's archives and pointed out other disturbing and controversial methods Franke used such as refusing food, threatening to cut off a stuffed animal's head and “canceling” Christmas as punishment.
A petition calling for an investigation into the incident gathered thousands of signatures and Utah Child Protective Services was contacted. However, no legal action has been taken at this time.
Franke and her husband initially dismissed the criticism, saying some of the videos were taken out of context.
But the channel's popularity began to decline and it was deleted in 2022, the same year Franke and her husband separated.
Franke then began appearing in YouTube videos that Hildebrandt a therapist and life coach posted on her website ConneXions Classroom.
However, away from the cameras, Franke's children suffered even worse abuse.
They were tied up, beaten, deprived of food and forced to work outdoors in the summer without sunscreen, resulting in severe burns, according to police records.
In a plea agreement, Hildebrandt explained that he tortured the children or was aware of the abuse and that he forced one of Franke's daughters to “jump into a cactus several times.”
Franke told his children that they were “evil and possessed” and needed to “repent.”
Through his lawyer, the YouTuber's exhusband, Kevin Franke, called for the maximum sentence to be imposed before the hearing and described the abuse of his children as “horrible and inhumane”.