Swansea Crown Court heard the only food in the house for the child were bags of crisps and bottles of lemonde
A MUM has been sentenced for neglect after her malnourished little boy was found wandering the rainy streets alone in a grubby and stained Spiderman costume. Staff from Swansea Council's housing department saw the boy — who was trying to cross a busy road — and rushed to pick him up.
The youngster — who is aged under five and was described in court as unwashed, hungry and unable to say where he lived — had no coat on, and was wearing one welly and a slipper.
Rhys Thomas, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that police were called, and spent 20 minutes driving the boy around Penlan in the hope he would recognise his house.
Eventually he was able to give officers his surname and they took him home — and found his house full of flies and piles of rubbish and stinking of human faeces.
The prosecutor read out details of the descriptions the police officers gave of the state of the property when they entered. The floors and stairs were covered in dirt and draped with toilet paper with excrement on it.
The kitchen was covered in grease and dirt and was filled with flies, and the only food in the house were bags of crisps and bottles of lemonade. The bathroom floor was smeared with faeces and urine; in one bedroom there was a bare mattress and pillow while the other bedroom was so piled with rubbish officers could barely get to the broken bunk bed, which again had a bare mattress covered in flies.
The court heard the mum told officers she and her son and fallen asleep on the sofa and that he must have woken up and wandered-off while she was sleeping.
The mum — who cannot be named to protect the identity of her son — had previously pleaded guilty to child neglect when she appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Dan Heard, for the defendant, told the court his client accepted she was a "willful neglector".
The advocate said his client was prone to depression but had stopped taking her medication — he said the house fallen into a poor state "and from there matters escalated".
He said: "She turned away family and friends who would come to house — she cocooned herself, hid herself away."
He added that the woman had a "good bond" with her son.
Judge Paul Thomas QC told the woman she had allowed her son to live in "squalor and filth" and had let him down, adding it beggared belief that such an environment for a child could exist "in our city in this day and age".
His Honour told her: "These were disgraceful conditions. Your son had insufficient food - he was surviving, it seems, on crisps and lemonade and when he was finally given food he ate it like he had not eaten for some time.
"The level of neglect and quite appalling conditions this child was subjected to clearly crosses the custody threshold. I have read the pre-sentence report with great care. Your son has suffered a great deal already — a sentence of imprisonment would add to that, richly though you deserve to loose your liberty.
"Let me make this clear — the only reason you are not going to prison today is the interests of the child."
The judge sentenced her to 16 months in prison suspended for two years, and ordered her to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation programme.
Read more: http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Mum-sentenced-neglect-keeping-young-son-squalor/story-28263434-detail/story.html#ixzz3szFbyMfl
Follow us: @SWEveningPost on Twitter | SWEveningPost on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment