Child abuse
‘House of Horrors’: Chinese couple arrested in US over child abuse
A Chinese immigrant and his wife have been arrested in the US on charges of abusing at least 14 children born through surrogacy, media reports said.
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, 66-year-old Guojun Xuan and 39-year-old Silvia Zhang were charged in connection with the alleged abuse of at least 14 surrogate-born children, some of whom were as young as two months old.
Xuan and Zhang were arrested at their mansion in Arcadia on Tuesday.
Xuan faces one felony count of child abuse, one felony count of being an accessory after the fact and five felony counts of dissuading a witness. Zhang faces one count of being an accessory after the fact and four counts of dissuading a witness.
The couple are accused of conspiring to subject 15 of the 16 children living at their Arcadia home to repeated physical abuse.
"The pair ran their own surrogacy company and allegedly made false statements to at least two women who became surrogates, indicating that Zhang was struggling to conceive," according to the criminal complaint cited by the District Attorney's Office.
The couple also allegedly hired nannies to supervise and discipline the children, who spent several hours a day in makeshift classrooms inside the Arcadia home.
More than 30 cameras were installed inside the house to monitor the children and nannies, according to the complaint.
One room, however, was not equipped with a camera. Some nannies allegedly took children into that room, where they could be heard screaming, the complaint said.
"Over an 11-day period, between April 27 and May 7, 2025, some of the nannies were caught on video spanking, slapping or hitting the children," the statement said.
In one instance, a nanny allegedly struck a child with a shoe, while Zhang and Li laughed as they watched the footage, according to the complaint.
On April 30, 2025, Xuan allegedly entered one of the classrooms and instructed a nanny to strike a child harder. He is then accused of repeatedly spanking the child, hitting the child on the head with open-handed blows and lifting the child by one arm while continuing to hit the child.
The alleged abuse came to light after police responded to a report involving a two-month-old boy who had suffered a head injury.
Li is accused of hitting the baby on May 4, while Xuan and Zhang allegedly did not seek medical treatment until two days later. They reportedly told medical staff that the baby had fallen from a bed.
On May 7, before police arrived, Xuan and Zhang allegedly instructed some of the children to deny that the nannies had beaten them. Zhang is also accused of telling one of the nannies to hide sticks allegedly used to strike the children.
If convicted as charged, Xuan faces a possible maximum sentence of 17 years and four months in state prison, while Zhang could face up to 11 years and eight months. Li faces a possible sentence of up to 12 years in prison.
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