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[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
This is one of the worst stories of child neglect we have heard.
According to press releases from the Cheshire Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), a woman — whose name was not revealed due to legal reasons — was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison on Tuesday at Chester Crown Court in northern England. Her crime? She severely neglected her baby daughter, keeping her hidden in a drawer under a bed for the first three years of her life! Cheshire Police said that “the charges relate to offences which occurred between 18 March 2020 and 18 February 2023,” adding:
“Following enquiries, it was found that the child had been born in March 2020, but had been kept secret and never been registered. Instead, the child had spent much of its life hidden in a bedroom at the address, even sleeping in a drawer under the bed. As a result of the woman’s actions, the child was severely underdeveloped, malnourished and also had a number of medical conditions which had never been treated.”
So horrific. It’s like she just wanted to put the baby away and forget about her.
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The Crown Prosecution Service stated the baby girl was discovered by the mother’s partner in February 2023. He went back into the house to use the restroom after the mom left her keys in the door and heard a noise, what he thought sounded like a baby. Normally, she did not allow him upstairs alone. And he soon found out why. CPS continued:
“He followed the noise and discovered a child of almost three years old with a cleft palate, matted hair and clearly malnourished.”
While “in shock,” the man ran from the home and told his mother about the child. His mom rang the mother of the defendant. And it was not long before the police and social workers were called and came to the house. A social worker who was at the scene recalled her shock at the sight of the baby in the drawer:
“Since March 2023 I have thought about (the baby) and this case often. My initial feelings and thoughts when we entered the mother’s bedroom was of disbelief. From entering this room, the bed was high, possibly a double mattress, so I could not see (the baby). Her mother walked round the side of the bed and I followed. I was taken aback by what I saw and was extremely shocked to see a baby looking up at me sat in a divan drawer. (The baby) stared at me and was rocking back and forth. I looked at her mum and asked, ‘Is this where you keep her?’ The mother replied matter of factly, ‘yes in the drawer.’”
What the f**k?! The social worker said she couldn’t believe the mom showed zero “emotion and appeared blasé about the situation,” adding:
“I asked had anyone else ever seen (the child)? Mum stated no. It became an overwhelming horror that I was probably the only other face X had seen apart from her mother’s. Having been a social worker since 2006, I have never experienced such an extreme case of blatant child neglect and cruelty. The mother showed no remorse or emotion which I found extremely difficult to comprehend.”
Just sickening…
Per CPS, the mom went on to tell officers that she was “in an abusive relationship with the father of the baby and didn’t want to tell him she was pregnant.” But later she didn’t tell anyone about the little one! Not even her friends and family! So, she decided, for an unknown reason to the police and CPS, to place the baby in the drawer under her bed and leave her there — often “alone for hours on end” while she went to work or took her other kids to school. She would only return every now and then to feed her “milky Weetabix” through a syringe and change her diapers. This poor child.
The “extreme nature of the neglect” ultimately resulted in the kid being severe malnourished and a developmentally delayed. CPS revealed:
“When the baby was examined by medical experts, she could not crawl, walk, talk or make any communicative noises and made repetitive ‘self-soothing’ movements, such as rocking. She was also significantly malnourished, unkempt, dehydrated, she had an untreated cleft lip and palate, swollen abdomen, significant nappy rash, and poor muscle bulk.”
Awful. They continued:
“She also had floppy limbs, swollen feet in an abnormal position and redness to the outer limbs. At the age of 35 months her development was markedly delayed and was the equivalent to that of a 10-month-old.”
Oh god…
The baby never left the drawer, as Senior Crown Prosecutor Rachel Worthington, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire said she didn’t even known about “daylight or fresh air”:
“This child has been subjected to extreme neglect of her health, development, and basic care needs since before she was born. This child has never had a birthday present, a Christmas present or anything to recognize these days. She’s had no interaction with any of her siblings. She hadn’t known daylight or fresh air and didn’t respond to her own name when she was first found.”
All of this breaks our hearts. What the child experienced for the first few years of her life is unimaginable…
Following her discovery, police said the kid was immediately taken into care. Thankfully, she has been doing better since then. In fact, CPS shared that within two weeks at the hospital, the girl was “vocalising, seeking adult comfort and crying to make her needs known.” She has gone on “to make progress and has been operated on twice to rectify the cleft palate” — though needs more surgery.
The mom pleaded guilty to four charges of child cruelty on October 9. She is now heading to jail for the next seven and a half years. What are your thoughts on the sentencing? Too light maybe? Let us know in the comments.
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
[Image via Cheshire Police]
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