PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge has sent three children to juvenile detention for refusing to have lunch or talk to their father as required under a court-ordered custody agreement.

Oakland County Judge Lisa Gorcyca says the children, aged 15, 10 and 9 years, can see their father but not their mother while being held at Children’s Village, and that they should “be kept away from each other as much as possible.”

WJBK-TV says the June 24 order grows out of a contentious divorce case that began in 2009.

Gorcyca told the family at the hearing in Pontiac that it’s one of the worst “parental alienation” cases she’s ever seen.

The father’s lawyer Keri Middleditch says the children’s mother is exploiting the children. The judge and the mother’s lawyer have declined comment.