A 67-year-old man was sentenced to five years in jail on Tuesday for treating his four sons "like pets" and keeping them in a filthy apartment filled with cat feces, urine and flies. The children are at present only able to communicate in grunts.

Wayne Sperling of Colorado will serve five years in prison for the 2013 Denver child abuse case in what prosecutors described as one of the "most horrific" cases they have ever seen. 

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Judge Eric J. Elliff said the message is that children should be treated with dignity and respect.

"They're not pets. They are not possessions," Judge Eliff said of kids. "They are human beings that need to be carefully nurtured. That didn't happen here."

Authorities were led to the Denver apartment in October 2013 by an emergency room doctor who treated the youngest child for a cut on his forehead. He saw telltale signs of neglect like bruises consistent with pinching. The child was unwashed and reeked of cigarette smoke.

In the apartment, authorities said they found nearly every surface covered with cat feces and flies. Beneath one of the boys' bed was an inch of caked cat feces and urine. They also found decomposing animals inside the house.

The children - aged from 2 to 6 -- were all malnourished and could only communicate in grunts.

Lorinda Bailey, Sperling's wife, is serving ninety days in jail with five years of probation after she was sentenced last month in the same case. Sperling's attorneys sought the same sentence for their client.

This was not the first child abuse case for the couple. Sperling and Bailey lost custody of their three other children in 2006 when authorities found their home filled with trash and rotten food. As with the four boys, the three children were barely able to communicate when they were taken from the property.

In the latest case, Deputy District Attorney Anita Drasan said the four boys acted like they have never seen food before, patting the sandwiches and playing with apples given to them after they were rescued. Drasan said when someone showed them how to eat the apples, the kids licked them instead.

While it may be one of the worst cases in Colorado, the state's child abuse laws prevented a tougher sentence from being handed down because the boys did not suffer serious physical injuries, prosecutors said.

TagsChild abuse, feces-filled home, wayne sperling, Denver, colorado, lorinda bailey