Children kept in blood-stained house with maggot-infested cot

An Angus woman who had children aged one and three in a blood and faeces-stained house with a maggot-infested cot has been ordered to carry out unpaid work after a long-term deferral in the case.

The 23-year-old appeared for sentencing before Sheriff Gregor Murray at Forfar, having previously admitted a charge relating to a Boxing Day offence at a house in Angus.

She admitted wilfully neglecting the children when they were under her care in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to their health.

She pleaded guilty to leaving rotten food and household waste within reach of them, failing to clean urine, faeces and blood from a carpet, failing to clean faeces and flies from the walls and failing to clean urine and faeces from bedding.

The woman also admitted allowing a cot mattress to become infested with maggots and leaving moulded clothing on the worktops and floor of the property.

Exposed electrical wiring was also evident in the property and the woman left a knife on the floor and an electric heater unguarded which caused an injury to the three-year-old.

Defence solicitor Billy Rennie said there had been no further issues with the accused, who has now moved to Perthshire, where she has a close circle of friends and is making a new start.

Sheriff Murray told the woman: “I am prepared to put you on a community payback order. You have been of good behaviour, which will allow me to reduce the number of hours of unpaid work.”

The woman was ordered to carry out 100 hours, reduced from 150, within a year.