Mexican minors kept captive for 7 years

2011-09-07 12:28

Mexico City - Eight minors were held captive and some were sexually abused for seven years in Mexico City by a man also accused of killing two of the victims, the attorney general's office said Tuesday.

Jorge Antonio Iniestra, 32, was detained in the working class neighbourhood of Iztapalapa on Saturday, with his 44-year-old partner, Clara Tapia, his mother, three brothers and a nephew, all accused of complicity, a statement said.

Three of the victims - a boy and two girls - were Tapia's children "who were deprived of freedom and suffered family violence, corruption of minors and exploitation", the statement said.

Iniestra sexually abused Tapia's two daughters, with whom he had five children, it said.

He "severely maltreated" the family, banned the women from leaving the house and made Tapia's eldest son earn money from odd jobs, collecting cardboard or selling sweets.

Iniestra is accused of beating one of his two step-daughters to death in 2009 as well as a three-month-old baby he had with her.

- AFP