Heartbreaking True Accounts Of The World's Worst Parents.

#1 It Wasn't A Pogo Stick.

An Austalian mother claimed her son's death was the result of ‘falling off a pogo stick.' She eventually pleaded guilty to her seven-year-old son's manslaughter, assault and the production of child abuse material. The trial uncovered sickening details of one of the worst cases of abuse ever seen in Australia.

The NSW Supreme Court heard that the boy's injuries made him look "like he'd been run over by a truck". Some of those injuries which included a fractured skull, several fractured ribs and bruising consistent with repeated physical abuse were sustained after being allegedly punished for six hours including being forced to squat against a wall and stand up on a coffee tin for hours.

The boy eventually fell from an elevated position after being punished, the mother's boyfriend admitted in a 2013 interview with police. The mother would put her children in nappies at night, despite all three being toilet trained, and made them use a bucket as a toilet. Their bedding was covered in feces and urine.

The court also saw a series of videos taken from a mobile phone that showed the mother berating the boy who had a moderate intellectual disability for wetting his pants. In another, the mother's 31-year-old partner who is charged with murder but has pleaded not guilty is seen telling the boy's siblings to beat him as part of a punishment regime based on the action movie 300.

The children stopped going to school, and the boyfriend encouraged the women and her other children to beat and starve the boy. At one stage, police were called while the family was briefly living in a caravan in Bulli; witnesses reported that the boy was being chased with a stick on the beach, not given food and water and forced to run along the beach until the point of collapse. It was also said he was hit repeatedly with a spatula. News Limited reported that the boy had been asking strangers for water.

On the morning of the boy's death, the boy's younger brother allegedly told a relative the mother's boyfriend had forced him to eat his own feces and smacked his face when he vomited. Later the seven-year-old boy was allegedly punished for six hours including being forced to squat against a wall and stand up on a coffee tin for hours, before the mother heard a thud, according to to the statement of facts presented by the mother in court.

Her boyfriend then allegedly carried her son into the kitchen saying, "he fell and hit his head". The boy remained unconscience for the remainder of the afternoon. The boyfriend asked if they should call an ambulance but the pair were concerned the boy's other injuries would be obvious so instead they tested whether the boy was "faking it," by holding a lit flame near his fingers to see if he moved his hand when it was burned.

The couple then ate pizza for dinner and had sex while the boy lay in their home unconscious, the woman later told police. It wasn't until the next morning that the mother finally called an ambulance. She then performed CPR while her boyfriend allegedly removed "evidence" from the studio including soiled bedding and drug implements.

#2 The Bound Girl.

Mayra Yomali Solis, who is homeless, had been dropping the girl off with Fransico Rios-Covarrubias for days at a time over the course of a month. Rios-Covarrubias had agreed to babysit the child while the mother went to work. Meza said Solis would stop by and see her child just one day a week. Police said they were tipped off Monday morning after a man Rios-Covarrubias had met online for sex showed up at the apartment at around 7:00 a.m.and noticed a bad odor. He also observed the child bound and gagged with duct tape kept inside a closet, Meza said.

"The suspect asked the responding party if he wanted to have sex with the child," Meza said.

The other man became upset and left the apartment. He returned shortly and had consensual sex but told police he did not see the girl. He left and immediately called the police. Police found the child with her legs and arms bound and duct tape over her mouth. She was covered in feces and inside a black trash bag with nothing but her head, which was shaved, exposed. She was immediately taken to the Mesa Family Advocacy Center, where she was examined by a pediatric forensics doctor and then hospitalized.

Rios-Covarrubias told officers he put her in the closet when he had visitors and also when he went to work, at another fast-food restaurant. Investigators said Rios-Covarrubias would turn the volume up on his television to silence the unattended girl's cries.

Police said the mother admitted to shaving the girl's head herself. She told officers she did it to make the child appear like a cancer victim, police said.

Rios-Covarrubias was arrested on several charges, including suspicion of sex trafficking, kidnapping and sexual conduct with a minor.

The girl's mother was also arrested. She told police she had no knowledge of any sexual activity occurring at the apartment and had no explanation for the girl's injuries. The girl may have fallen, she said.

#3 No Room For Them.

Jondrew Lachaux, 39, and Kellie Phillips, 38, turned themselves in after three children's appalling plight was discovered. According to court documents, the man and woman took five of their children on a trip to Oakland, California, eight months ago. The couple left behind two daughters a teen and a sickly 3-year-old toddler in their suburban Las Vegas home because the rental vehicle was full.

Authorities say Lachaux reportedly raped and impregnated his stepdaughter, who gave birth at home without any medical care to a now 4-month-old girl.

She struggled to care for herself while pregnant and her 3-year-old sister who had medical problems while they were home alone. But the teen said she was too scared to call for help even after the food and medication left by their mother ran out.

"The totality of evidence is leading investigators to believe she was almost a prisoner in her home," police Sgt. Chrissie Coon said. "Fugitives can psychologically confine their victims without physically being present."

A month after the teen called her parents because her sickly toddler sister had died, her stepfather came home to hide her sister's corpse and then kicked her out of the house in fear that her mother would find out about the pregnancy. She survived for a few days homeless in public places, including at the airport and on the Las Vegas Strip.

The teen said the 3-year-old sister apparently had trouble breathing and died about a month ago. She called her parents for two weeks before Lachaux called back to learn of the death.

Lachaux and the teen apparently hid the badly decomposed body in the back seat of a broken-down Mercedes in the garage. The corpse was leaking fluids but was concealed in a box surrounded by blankets, plastic bags, and pizza boxes, according to court records.

#4 Only The Two.

Kaylah Hill pleaded guilty to abuse or neglect of a child and endangering the welfare of a child, but her boyfriend of the time and co-defendant, Dustin Richard, decided to take his charges and go in front of a judge. At one time eight kids lived in a house on Florida Street, but only the two, seemed to be abused. Hill's seven-year-old son had to testify. Forced to recall the horrific abuse he and his sister, three years old at the time, had to endure.

The children went days without food. They were beaten, told investigators they were tied to chairs and thrown down stairs. The three-year-old toddler was kept in isolation, in what investigators describe as holes in walls, inside closets, with insulation and nails exposed. Court documents show what officials are calling, one of the worst cases of abuse. The toddler was so malnourished, hair was falling out. She had scratches and cuts all over her body. Her feet swollen causing her toes to turn blue. She was so sick, doctors say she may have died if not for a family member taking her to the hospital the day after Christmas, back in 2013. Her brother only ate at school, having no food at home.

#5 Their Virtual Darling

A South Korean couple was arrested for neglecting their three-month-old baby girl, allowing her to starve to death. The infant was left unattended at home while the couple spent hours at internet cafés obsessively playing a game where they raised a virtual baby they named Anima.

The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby. They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby. The couple fled to the wife's parents' house in Yangju, Gyeonggi province, but were picked up later.

The case has highlighted the dangers of internet addiction: a disturbingly common problem in South Korea.