Prison term cut for mum guilty of child neglect

A junkie mother from the city who made her children live in squalor has had her threeyear prison term for child neglect cut by top judges. The 26- year- old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested after police investigating a disturbance at her home at Christmas 2011 found her three neglected children.

They were surrounded by vomit, excrement, decaying food and rubbish.

The children, who had suffered severe damage to their teeth through lack of care, told police they had to feed themselves from a fridge and freezer which was filled with foodstuffs so rancid that the smell caused officers to gag when the door was opened, the court was told.

In September, at Peterborough Crown Court, she was jailed for three years, having pleaded guilty to three counts of child neglect.

At the time, Judge Sean Enright slammed Peterborough City Council’s children’s services for a “lamentable lack of urgency” in the case, describing it as a “shocking situation”.

Yesterday, the mother’s term was cut by a quarter to two years and three months.

Her lawyer had asked for mercy, telling the judges that it was a case of “neglect arising from drug and alcohol abuse and not a case of gratuitous sadism”.

Mr Justice Nicol, allowing her appeal, said: “This was a serious example of child neglect that impacted on three young children.

“This was in many ways a sad case of a mother without the parenting skills that were needed who had suffered herself from poor parenting, and was in a more vulnerable state because of the death of her own mother shortly before the events which led to these convictions.”

The mother will serve half her new sentence before qualifying for automatic release.

Peterborough Crown Court