A Utah mother whose harsh parenting advice made her a YouTube influencer has been sentenced to at least four years in prison for child abuse.
Ruby Franke, 42, tearfully apologised in court as she learned her fate. She previously pleaded guilty to starving and abusing her children.
She appeared along with her former business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, who received an identical sentence.
The judge sentenced them to serve four terms of one to 15 years each.
The sentences will run consecutively and are the maximum for each count under Utah law. How much time each will ultimately serve will be determined by the state’s parole board.
Franke will have 30 days to appeal the decision.
In court, Utah prosecutor Eric Clarke said that two of Franke’s children, aged nine and 11 at the time, lived in a “concentration camp-like setting” and called her a significant threat to the community.
“The children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment,” Mr Clarke said.
In court, Franke was in tears following the sentence. She apologised to her children and said: “I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong.”
“I was led to believe that this world was an evil place, filled with cops who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect and children who need abuse,” she said.
The two women were arrested in August 2023 after Franke’s malnourished 12-year-old son climbed out of a window at Hildebrandt’s house in Ivins, Utah. Police said the child then ran to a neighbour’s house and asked for food and water. He had lacerations from being tied up with rope, according to police records.
