Monsters who starved their daughter, 2, to death are jailed
Expert calls them ‘the most deviant and devious couple I have ever encountered’
THE parents of a toddler who died after months of appalling neglect and ill-treatment have each been jailed for more than six years.
Lauren Wade, two, died from malnutrition after being found unresponsive, extremely thin and covered with thousands of head lice at her filthy home.
The High Court in Glasgow heard yesterday she had been suffering from ‘a damaged heart and may have had internal septicaemia’ on the day of her death in March 2015.
Margaret Wade, 38, and her partner Marie Sweeney, 37, were originally charged with murder – but this was reduced when prosecutors accepted guilty pleas to an amended charge of wilful ill-treatment and neglect of Lauren between June 2014 and March 2015.
The jobless pair have been allowed weekly visits in prison from two other children, who suffered neglect while staying with them in Townhead, Glasgow.
Last month, the court heard that Wade, Lauren’s natural mother, felt ‘no guilt’.
Yesterday, Judge Lady Stacey sentenced the pair to six years and four months for Lauren’s neglect, as well as three years for the neglect of two other children between 2007 and 2015. The sentences will run concurrently.
Lady Stacey said: ‘You have pled guilty to very serious charges. These relate to three separate children but, as would be expected, these charges overlap and seem to refer to the same basic illtreatment and neglect.
‘What you failed to do was to provide the children with adequate and appropriate nutrition. Your youngest daughter had been provided with an inadequate diet, as a result of which she was malnourished and complications arose from that malnourishment, causing that child to die at a very young age.’
She added: ‘They were entitled to a better home-life than they had.
‘When your youngest daughter died, your house was in a shocking state. You knew the children were dependent on you. You failed in your duties to these children.’
Neither Wade nor Sweeney showed any emotion as they were taken down.
The case raises serious questions over the role of the childcare authorities. Colin Anderson, independent chairman of the Glasgow Child Protection Committee, called it one of the most challenging cases he had seen in 50 years in social care.
He said: ‘This is a unique set of circumstances, thankfully.
‘It’s the most deviant and devious parenting couple I have ever encountered.
‘This heartbreaking case involved a number of agencies. Lessons have already been learned and applied through various dissemination and training activities.
‘Measures have been, and will continue to be, put in place to improve information sharing and to ensure concerns about a child or children are identified and jointly acted upon at an early stage. Child protection is a matter for everyone – whether it is lead professionals, extended family members, neighbours or the wider community.’
Matt Forde, of NSPCC Scotland, said: ‘The details of Lauren’s death represent one of the most appalling examples of neglect that is possible to imagine. It is incomprehensible how two people who were meant to look after a child could subject her to such appalling harm.
‘While this heartbreaking case is an extreme example of child neglect, we know that thousands of children across Scotland and the UK are suffering the long-lasting effects of this form of child cruelty.
‘Neglect is, sadly, the most common form of child abuse and it is everyone’s responsibility to spot the signs.’
‘Appalling neglect’