Mike and Heather Martin, the couple behind YouTube page DaddyoFive, have had their children taken away from them after relentlessly tormenting them in pranks uploaded to the channel
A YouTube prankster couple have lost custody to their two children after uploading multiple videos of them onto their channel.
Mike and Heather Martin, from Maryland, USA, who ran the DaddyoFive channel together, subjected their children, Cody, nine, and Emma, 12, to relentless, cruel pranks and broadcast them on the internet.
After being reported by viewers, they have now deleted all the prank videos and uploaded a new one of them apologising.
Heather is stepmum to Cody and Emma, whose biological mother Rose Hall is now looking after the children under "emergency custody".
Rose uploaded her own video with her lawyer, Tim Conlon, saying that the children were "doing good": "They're getting back to their playful selves."
Conlon added: "The kids are in a deprogramming sort of mode in the moment."
They also thanked the viewers who continually flagged the videos to YouTube and helped the chlidren. Rose said: "It was very heartbreaking and disturbing to see my kids abused."
The channel has 760,000 subscribers, which seemed to mainly target the youngest member of the family - Cody.
In one particularly awful video, Heather could be seen grinning and telling the camera excitedly that she was going to spray disappearing ink in his room and blame him for it.
Both Mike and Heather then screamed at the nine-year-old and swear at him, asking him: "What the fuck did you do?!"
He pleaded with his parents, saying: "I didn't do that, I don't have anything with or whatever this is," who responded by saying they would sell all of his toys which caused the poor little boy to burst into tears.
When the pair finally admitted that it was a prank, Cody was visibly stunned. In another disturbing video, he threatened to kill himself, screaming: "I hate my life, just kill me."
The sickening videos have now been taken down from the DaddyoFive channel{
Heather said: "This has been the absolute worst week of our life. We realise we have made some terrible parenting decisions."
Mike added: "I understand and acknowledge and respect how everyone feels. We put things on the Internet that should not be there and did things we should not do."
But they were not wholly remorseful for their pranks, maintaining that the children were "in on the joke" the whole time.
What do you think of this story? Do you think it's harmless fun or do you think it's right that the children were taken away from their dad and stepmum? Let us know over on Facebook and Twitter.
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