A CALIFORNIA judge has barred the parents accused of torturing their children and shackling them to beds for months at a time from contacting them.

David and Louise Turpin appeared in court in Riverside County on Wednesday. The protective order signed during the hearing prohibits the couple from having any contact with their 13 children. The siblings, between 2 and 29 years old, were rescued from their filthy home in Perris on January 14.

The Turpins have pleaded not guilty to torture, abuse and other charges.

Prosecutors say they are slowly receiving valuable information from the siblings who were held captive in their California home.

In an interview on Wednesday with The Associated Press, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said the children remained hospitalised and were relieved to be rescued from what authorities called a torture chamber. He says investigators are going to let the siblings — ranging from 2 to 29 — tell their story when they’re ready.

“Victims in these kinds of cases, they tell their story, but they tell it slowly. They tell it at their own pace,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said. “It will come out when it comes out.”

David and Louise Turpin are accused of abusing their 13 children before they were rescued on January 14 from their home.

Before the brief hearing, Louise Turpin looked at her husband and smiled.

“It protects everyone involved, including my client,” David Turpin’s lawyer, David Macher, said about the order. “I don’t want my client exposed to accusations that he attempted to harass or threaten a witness.”

Louise Turpin’s lawyer declined to comment after the hearing. All of the children remained hospitalised and were relieved to be out of the home, Hestrin said.

Deputies arrested the husband and wife after their 17-year-old daughter climbed out a window and called emergency services. Authorities found the siblings in the family’s filthy home, with three of them shackled to beds when deputies knocked on the door.

Investigators have learned that the children were isolated from each other and locked in different rooms in small groups, Hestrin said.

The children did not have access to televisions or radios but were able to read and write and expressed themselves in hundreds of journals that were seized from the home, the district attorney said.

“It appears to me that they lacked any kind of understanding about how the world worked,” Hestrin said.

One of the older boys had taken a variety of classes at Mt. San Jacinto College, a community college, but his mother took him to the campus and waited outside class for him, Hestrin said. The college confirmed that one of the Turpins had been a student but refused to provide additional information, including some that is generally releasable under federal privacy laws.

Earlier this week, Louise Turpin’s half-brother, Billy Lambert, told several news organisations that she had aspired to have a reality television show focusing on their large family. But Hestrin said investigators have uncovered no evidence indicating the couple was seeking media attention or a show.

The case has garnered attention around the world. About 20 people from across the US have offered to take the seven adult children and six minors and keep them together.