This bizarre story may sound unrealistic, but it’s true and maybe even takes the cake as far as morbid goes. On 24 October 2008, Klara Mauerova 31, the mother of the then 8-year-old Ondrej and 10-year-old Jakub was sentenced to 9 years in jail for her crimes. She and other family relatives were found guilty of locking the boys in cages, torturing them, sexually abusing them and in particular, skinning Ondrej and forcing him to eat his own flesh in Brno, the Czech Republic until May 2007.

The Torture

The family is part of a cult called the Grail Movement however, the official court case revoked all mention of the Grail Movement since they could discover no link between the criminals and the “cult”. The mother, Klara Mauerova, her sister, Katerina and fellow torturer, Barbara Skrlova all used to torture the boys regularly. The boys told the judges that their mother and relatives used to stub out cigarettes on them, whip them like animals and even tried to drown them. The boys were also sexually abused and forced to make self-inflicted cut marks with knives. Sometimes, the boys were forced to stand for days together in their own urine while being handcuffed to a table.

The younger boy, Ondrej was subject to worse torture. He was chained and locked in his cellar for 6 months, gagged the entire time. Why? To stop him from screaming. He was screaming because Klara and Katerina skinned his arm and then forced the flesh down the little boy’s throat. Other claims state that the family ate his flesh themselves.

Does The Punishment Fit The Crime?

In Court, the sick cult (auto spell) sisters did not give any reasons for the tortures and mutilation. Klara admitted to abusing her children but said she was manipulated by her sister and Skrlova. She also said that they received instructions on how to torture the boys from a person called ‘Doctor’, an unknown cult member. The State prosecutor stated, “their main aim was to make the boys blindly serve their religious goals. The Judge, Pavel Goth stated that the sisters wanted to create a person with a completely broken will. The boys were repeatedly physiologically, sexually and physically abused.

Klara received 9 years in prison, which means she’s due to be released sometime this year, after October. Her sister, Katerina, 35 was jailed for 10 years for her crimes. Skrlova was sentenced for 5 years and is now out. Skrlova used to live with the boys and when the police came to make the arrests, she posed as a 13-year-old girl and made her escape to Poland. She was traced and brought to trial. Three others were also found guilty, Hans Basova, 28 and Jans Skrla, 25 were sentenced to 7 years each and Jan Turek was jailed for 5 years.

Most of the guilty except Klara and her sister have already served time and are out. The release of the sisters was completed in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The punishment for any of the crimes committed should be nothing short of life imprisonment.

How Did They Get Caught?

The story only gets weirder. Klara and the other family members’ crimes would have never been exposed if not for the neighbor and some technical malfunction. Klara kept a camera over the boys and a monitor in the kitchen. So she could keep an eye and enjoy every moment of torture possible. The neighbors had a new baby and installed a baby monitor, something that parents do to keep an eye on a child that means everything to them. When the camera was installed and monitor plugged in, the neighbor was shocked to see images of a naked gagged boy in a cage.

The camera and monitors being from the same manufacturer had their signals mixed up. This caused Klara’s feed to appear on the neighbor’s screen. The neighbor recognized the young boy and directed the police to Ondrej and Jakub’s location. The police arrived at the location and after investigating a locked door, found Ondrej, bloody, bound and scared.