Little Lauren starved, neglected & left to die in utter squalor
Lauren died sick, filthy, emaciated and riddled with thousands of lice after a lifetime of misery & neglect in a flat piled high with rubbish bags and dirty dishes. Her twisted parents face years behind bars.. yet her mother claims she has no guilt
TWO women were sent to jail to await sentence yesterday for the sickening neglect of a girl who died aged only two.
Margaret Wade and Marie Sweeney showed such callous indifference to daughter Lauren Wade that she died from complications of malnutrition – filthy, emaciated and infested with lice. Prosecutors dropped a charge of killing Lauren, and Wade and Sweeney admitted neglect.
THE parents of a two-yearold girl who died after months of horrific neglect were behind bars last night for what they did to her. Margaret Wade, 38, and Marie Sweeney, 37, kept little Lauren Wade in revolting squalor, denying her proper food and the basic care that every child has a right to expect. When the tot died – from complications of malnutrition – she was “skinny, dirty and unkempt”, with a sodden nappy, bald patches and “thousands” of head lice.
The cover she had been lying on was so infested with lice and fleas that the paramedics who tried to help her had to decontaminate their ambulance.
Wade and Sweeney’s home, where two other children suffered but survived, was littered with festering uneaten food, grime-encrusted plates and dirty clothes.
Some of the rubbish had been there for more than two years. There was so much of it in the kitchen that the door would hardly open. Hundreds of flies and other insects had been attracted by the filth.
Wade, described as Lauren’s mother, lied repeatedly about the child’s suffering and said she had “no guilt” over her death.
She and Sweeney were first charged with murder, then with the lesser charge of culpable homicide, before being allowed to plead guilty yesterday to the further reduced charge of wilful ill-treatment and neglect of Lauren and the other children, who cannot be named.
Their lawyers asked that they be allowed to remain on bail, but judge Lady Stacey remanded them in custody to await sentence in the New Year.
Wade and Sweeney had been a couple for more than 15 years. Both regarded themselves as Lauren’s parents. They lived in Pinkston Drive in Sighthill, Glasgow, before moving to another flat in nearby Fountainwell Drive in 2011.
There, they subjected Lauren and the other children to what prosecutor Bill McVicar called “basic ill-treatment and neglect”.
Wade and Sweeney failed to keep the children clean or properly clothed, and failed to take them to the doctor. They even failed to feed them properly.
Mr McVicar said the worst effect of the lack of a proper diet was “the malnutrition of Lauren, which caused complications leading to her death”.
Lauren was “plainly unwell” and “emaciated” for days before she died, but all Wade did was lie. She told a neighbour Lauren had been “screaming all night” because of “teething”, but the child already had a full set of teeth. Wade then claimed days later that Lauren had a cold.
On March 20, 2015, a 999 call was made after Lauren was found “unresponsive”. She was taken to hospital but pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
Medical staff were horrified by the state of the little girl. Wade told nurses she’d had a virus for a couple of days – while keeping her own hood up to hide the fact that she was also infested with head lice.
Mr McVicar said paramedics noticed the cover Lauren had lain on “was covered in lice and fleas”. He added: “They had to clean and decontaminate the ambulance.”
Wade, as well being louse-infested, “appeared dirty and smelled of body odour”.
A post mortem revealed that Lauren had been the victim of “severe neglect”, with evidence that lice had been there for “over 17 months” of her life.
Police went to the Fountainwell Drive flat, which one detective called “one of the most disgusting houses” he had ever had to visit. Mr McVicar said: “It was neither a suitable nor safe environment for children.”
The flat was strewn with rubbish, some
Pot Noodle appeared to be the staple family diet BILL McVICAR PROSECUTOR
of which dated back to 2013, as well as leftover food, dirty plates and clothes. There were “hundreds” of insects.
“The kitchen was so full of bags of rubbish that there was barely enough space to open the door,” Mr McVicar said.
“There were numerous empty Pot Noodle cartons, all with flies. Pot Noodle appeared to be the staple family diet.”
In one bedroom, the clutter was so bad that the carpet was “almost invisible”.
Mr McVicar added: “It is clear the failure to provide proper accommodation was a long-standing issue, which did not simply emerge in the days or weeks before the death of Lauren.”
The court heard that in 2014, a school nurse made an unprompted visit to the flat because of concerns for the children.
Information was then passed to social workers and a health visitor found the flat “messy”, with cigarette butts on the floor.
A further visit was planned. But during this, the flat was found to be clean – and “unrecognisable”.
It didn’t last. Mr McVicar said: “Conditions deteriorated again... causing all three children to live again in an unsafe and unhygienic environment.”
He said the children were exposed to the risk of infection and unnecessary suffering which may have played a part in Lauren’s death.
Wade and Sweeney, who claimed there had been problems with bins being emptied at the block, were treated as witnesses in the investigation before becoming suspects.
Social workers assessed them. Mr McVicar told the court: “Margaret Wade accepted no responsibility for her failings in basic parenting. She said she had no guilt over Lauren’s death.”
Sweeney accepted that she should have been “more forceful” about the state of the house.
Wade and Sweeney first appeared in court in July 2017. But by the time the case was called at the High Court in Glasgow, the murder charge had been reduced to culpable homicide following “up-to-date medical evidence”.
The couple pled guilty yesterday to the amended charge, with the allegation that they killed Lauren removed. The crime spanned from June 2014 to March 2015, and they admitted neglecting the other two children between 2007 and 2015.
Lady Stacey deferred sentence for reports and ordered the couple jailed. She told them: “You have pled guilty to very serious charges. I am not prepared to allow bail to be continued.”