A woman from Cheshire has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail for the cruelty she inflicted on her own child. The child was found under a bed in a drawer at the family home, neglected and malnourished, with matted hair and deformities. The mother did not seek medical attention for the child’s cleft palate and fed her only milky Weetabix through a syringe.
The child had a developmental age of nought to 10 months when first taken to the hospital, and was significantly malnourished and dehydrated. She was kept in a drawer in the bedroom, not taken outside, and had no interaction with anyone else. The child’s foster carer mentioned that she did not even know her own name when first found.
The woman claimed she did not know she was pregnant and was scared when she gave birth. She said the baby was not always kept in the drawer and that the child was not considered part of the family. She mentioned having an abusive relationship with the child’s father and did not want him to find out about the baby.
The woman pleaded guilty to four counts of child cruelty, including failure to seek medical care, abandonment, malnourishment, and neglect. The motive behind her behavior is still unclear, but the priority was to bring her to justice. The hope is for the child to recover as much as possible and live a full life.
The child has experienced unimaginable suffering, and the neglect she endured will impact her for the rest of her life. The recovery since being discovered has been remarkable, and everyone involved in the case has been shocked by the extent of the neglect. The hope is for the child’s recovery to continue and for her to live as full a life as possible.
