Neighbour denies setting up parents who left kids home alone

JOHOR BARU: The neighbour of a couple accused of abandoning their three young children expressed disappointment over their allegation that she set them up.

The 30-year-old housewife of Larkin Perdana flat, known only as Ju, claimed that she never volunteered to take care of the couple’s children when they were away.

“She only told me to keep an eye on her children as she will be working in the morning shift. She told me her husband would be in the room as he was on night shift,” Ju told reporters yesterday.

The couple had left their children in the room without food when Ju found them alone after she heard sound of falling plates last Wednesday. “Their father was not in the room,” she said, adding that she and the landlord texted and called the couple who did not reply to the text messages or the calls.

Ju fed the children, cleaned the room and called the state Welfare Department around 1pm but was informed they were unable to attend to the case.

The next day, she was awakened by the couple’s two-year old son Daniel crying nonstop but when she knocked on the door, no one answered.

“The landlord and I again called the Welfare Department and they turned up with several policemen to rescue the children,” she said.

Ju said this was not the first time the children were left unattended and on many occasions, she had helped the couple out.

She said she had lodged a police report over the couple’s allegations against her.

It was reported that the couple left their children on their own for two days and claimed they were set up by a neighbour.

The Welfare Department rescued the children, aged two to six years, after pictures of them alone in a one-room shop lot went viral.