The parents behind the YouTube channel DaddyOFive lost custody of two of their children following complaints of child abuse. Mike and Heather Martin from Maryland played pranks on their kids and posted these via videos, which prompted the public to report them to authorities for cruelty.
Emma, 12 and Cody, 9, are now in the temporary custody of their biological mom, Rose Hall, from North Carolina. Frederick County's Major Tim Clarke peacefully turned over the kids to her last Friday, April 28. Her video with her lawyer Tim Conlon surfaced on YouTube confirming this fact, BBC reported.
Hall said she was heartbroken to watch her kids abused in DaddyOFive's YouTube. She also told The Baltimore Sun she hasn't seen Cody since 2014 and Emma since 2015.
"[Cody] said some things that were disturbing, that he hated me and that Mike and Heather told him that I threw him away like he was garbage and I didn't love him," Hall said. She referred to Mike as her ex-boyfriend.
She reported DaddyOFive's pranks to local authorities in October 2016. They did, however, no action because the Martins lived in another state and were out of jurisdiction. Hall's lawyer assured the public the kids are now safe with their mother as the case against the Martins awaits proceedings in court.
Meanwhile, DaddyOFive's prank videos no longer exist on the YouTube channel. What remains is a video apology from the Martins posted on April 22.
They said the kids knew of the pranks most of the time before they filmed these. Some of their reactions were apparently "planned." The internet grew upset at the Martin couple when one of these prank videos featuring Cody went viral last April, Parent Herald reported.
The Martins have three other older kids from Heather's previous relationship. They remain in their custody.
