Girl barred from family home has trench foot

A YOUNG girl developed trench foot after her parents forced her to sleep in squalid conditions in an outhouse away from the family home, a court heard.

The child, now 16, was starved and forced to sleep outside for eight years, and resorted to foraging for food in bins and begging strangers for money before she was finally taken into care.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday, a couple, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, were jailed for four years and three months.

Paul Reid, district crown prosecutor with West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, said: “They showed no remorse for their actions and blamed each other for the cruelty inflected on the child.” When taken into care, the girl’s foster carers found that she had developed trench foot, a First World War condition that causes numbness, swelling and sores on the soles of the feet.

She also had untreated skin infections and severe head lice; her height had been stunted due to a lack of nutrition. The 44-year-old stepfather and 40-year-old mother admitted cruelty to a child under 16.

Detective Sergeant Catherine Loosemore, of the West Midlands Police, said: “Although she has recovered physically, the mental scars remain. I hope with time and the happy home she now finds herself in, she will be able to feel the love and stability that she deserves.”