Two parents were refused an appeal of care orders after a court found their 5 children were neglected and sexually abused.
The case is one of 22 highlighted by the Child Care Law Reporting project.
The five children range in age from three to eight and came into voluntary care in April 2013.
Full care orders were made last year and the Child and Family Agency sought to significantly reduce parental access, which the parents appealed.
The court heard evidence of prolonged and serious neglect of the children – which included living in a succession of dirty and chaotic houses, which were extremely cold in winter.
They had not been properly toilet trained and the four older children showed disturbed behaviour, with three of them having intellectual disabilities.
The court also heard evidence of sexualised behaviour on behalf of three of the children – with all of them making statements suggesting their father had sexually abused them in the company of their mother.
These claims were strenuously denied by the parents.
The judge said detailed accounts from two of the children meant on the balance of probabilities the claims were true.
She made care orders for all five children until the age of 18, and acknowledged that both parents had suffered significant trauma in their own childhoods.
