Chilling pictures show home where man kept wife and children chained up for 17 years

Luiz Antonio Santos Silva, allegedly kept his wife of 23 years and his two adult children, aged 19 and 22, locked up in their home in Guaratiba, Brazil.

He was nicknamed ‘DJ’ by his neighbours because he often blasted music in a bid to cover up his victim’s screams.

The three people were rescued after an anonymous report was made to the police.

When officers arrived at the scene on Thursday, July 28th, they described the situation as “appalling” as the three captors were severely malnourished and dehydrated.

"The police officers who first arrived here found these children really tied up,” one officer told g1 News.

“Later, I arrived and saw that they were dirty, malnourished. So, the immediate concern was to provide medical assistance.”

The three people were living, in chains, in unhygienic sub-human conditions.

According to neighbours, his two adult children look like children because of malnutrition.

"I cried when I saw her leaving. You looked at her and thought she would be about 8 years old,” one neighbour said.

Neighbours told g1 news that they had made previous complaints but to no avail.

They added that he also used to throw away any donations of food he received so his wife and children could not eat.

One neighbour managed to give a banana to one of the children on the day of their rescue.

"The little creature took the banana and ate it, peel and all. She was very hungry,” they said.

In a statement to police, Silva’s wife said that the three of them had suffered physical and psychological violence on a permanent basis and that they went up to three days without food.

She said that she tried to separate from her husband several times and he told her that she would only leave when she was dead.

She added that her husband didn’t allow her to work or her children to go to school.

Luiz Antonio Santos Silva will now face charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment, ill-treatment and torture.